Danilo Arbilla
Journalist
Maybe they are just electoral promises. In the end, it is preferable to trust in the counterweights that have always been present in the United States.
Who would have thought that Donald Trump could finally be the one to help crystallize Che Guevara’s dream, proclaimed in his Message to the Tricontinental meeting in Havana in January 1966, of creating “two, three, many Vietnams”.
The new president of the United States promises to throw out and deport Mexican immigrants in bulk, erect more stockades, apply suffocating 25 percent tariffs and even nominatively Americanize the Gulf of Mexico.
It is true that Mexicans need a “tate quieto”; now, relax but with order.
Not to mention the “annexation” of Canada and the promise of another 25 percent tariff if they do not adhere to the idea. No one would have imagined it.
Nor would anyone have imagined the purchase of Greenland. The Danes who had no plans to sell, startled, were awakened from their nap. I don’t know if they will fix with the Shield change. Trump says if necessary he would use force.
And what do the rest of the Europeans – so fond of gargling – say. Let them tighten their throats, because it is not only the Greenland-Denmark issue, but the new president of the great power has already warned them that he will have to provide more money for NATO. Otherwise, the protection is over.
It was known that Trump was a protectionist, determined to buckle his country, but not so much, wielding his sword against his own and others, and more against his own, as can be foreseen.
And if that were not enough, why mess with Panama and its Canal? It is no way to ask for a reduction in tariffs like that; business can be done for a while, but then Vietnam appears, especially when brute force is also used and the idea of a new invasion or seizure of the “zone” is being bandied about. The Panama Canal is the best story to understand the greatness of the recently deceased President Jimmy Carter. All his efforts will have been in vain: the cry of “Yankees go home” will resound again.
But well, that same Trump, so overwhelming in these parts, is loosening his grip on the invasion of Ukraine. Does he have other ideas, yes, with money or foreign territories? Is he so friendly with Vladimir Putin and is Russia imperial again?
He also appears somewhat more lukewarm or not as enthusiastic as before regarding support for Israel in the Middle East.
Has he become pragmatic? Or has he been convinced by Pope Francis who does not cease in his campaign against liberalism and freedom and in his dissimulated, and sometimes not so dissimulated, support for the Palestinians, Maduro and Kirchnerism?
How to explain Trump’s lukewarmness regarding Venezuela? What is he going to do about the exploitation and purchase of Venezuelan oil? Pragmatism again? Business is business and, as is well known, when business comes into play, freedoms, human rights and democracy take second or third place.
Totalitarian market freedom has that. For any curiosity ask about China, which is not only dedicated to produce global pests.
It was known of a protectionist Trump, determined to buckle his country, but not so much, wielding the sword against his own and others, and more against his own as it can be foreseen.
Maybe they are just electoral promises. In the end, it is preferable to trust in the counterweights that have always been present in the United States. To trust in its press, in its media, also hated and much beaten by the president. Donald Trump, today, in addition, and this should not be overlooked, has new and powerful friends and allies, people for whom “business” is a priority.
This is a Trump who seems to be a right-wing and conservative man, but not a liberal. Not by a long shot.
