{"id":75344,"date":"2016-06-20T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=75344"},"modified":"2016-06-19T16:49:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T15:49:04","slug":"kill-list-smashing-the-b-in-brics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/06\/kill-list-smashing-the-b-in-brics\/","title":{"rendered":"Kill List: Smashing the \u2018B\u2019 in BRICS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pepeescobar\"<\/a>14 Jun 2016 – <\/em>History, predictably, now repeats itself as\u00a0farce as\u00a0the 2016 coup has turned Brazil \u2013 the 7th largest economy in\u00a0the world and a key Global South player \u2013 into\u00a0a Honduras or Paraguay (where recent US-supported coups were successful).<\/p>\n

I have shown how the coup in\u00a0Brazil is an extremely sophisticated Hybrid War<\/a> operation going way beyond\u00a0unconventional warfare (UW); four generation warfare (4GW); color revolutions; and R2P (\u201cresponsibility to\u00a0protect\u201d), all the way to\u00a0the summit of\u00a0smart power; a political-financial-judicial-mainstream media soft coup unveiled in\u00a0slow motion. This is the beauty of\u00a0a coup when promoted by\u00a0democratic institutions.<\/p>\n

The stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the BRICS, but the future of a new multipolar world is in the balance. And it all hinges on what happens in Brazil in the next few months.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with\u00a0the Kafkaesque internal turmoil. The coup against\u00a0President Dilma Rousseff remains an unrivalled media theatre\/political tragicomedy gift that keeps on\u00a0giving. It also doubles as\u00a0a case of\u00a0information war converted into\u00a0a strategic tool of\u00a0political control.<\/p>\n

A succession of\u00a0appalling audio leaks has revealed that key sectors of\u00a0the Brazilian military as\u00a0well as\u00a0selected Supreme Court justices have legitimized the coup against\u00a0a President<\/a> that has always protected the two-year-old Car Wash corruption investigation. Even Western mainstream media was forced to\u00a0admit that Dilma did not steal anything but\u00a0is being impeached by\u00a0a bunch of\u00a0thieves. Their agenda; to\u00a0stifle the Car Wash investigation, which may eventually throw many of\u00a0them in\u00a0jail.<\/p>\n

The leaks also unveiled a nasty internecine carnage between\u00a0Brazilian comprador elites\u00a0\u2014 peripheral and mainstream. Essentially the peripherals were used as\u00a0lowly paperboys in\u00a0Congress for\u00a0the dirty work. But now they may be about\u00a0to become road kill \u2013 along\u00a0the illegitimate, unpopular, interim Michel Temer \u201cgovernment\u201d, led by\u00a0a bunch of\u00a0corrupt-to-the-core PMDB politicians, the party that is heir to\u00a0the sole opposition outfit tolerated during\u00a0the 1960s-1980s military dictatorship.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>

It is time for BRICS to go beyond the economic bloc. Source: BRICS2015.ru<\/p><\/div>\n

Meet the vassal chancellor<\/strong><\/p>\n

An insidious character in\u00a0the current golpeachment<\/a> scam is the interim Minister of\u00a0Foreign Relations, senator Jose Serra<\/a> of\u00a0the PSDB party, the social democrats turned neoliberal enforcers. In the 2002 presidential election \u2013 which he lost to\u00a0Lula\u00a0\u2014 Serra had already tried to\u00a0get rid of\u00a0peripheral Brazilian oligarchies.<\/p>\n

Yet now he\u2019s incarnating another role\u00a0\u2014 perfectly positioned not only to\u00a0retrograde Brazilian foreign policy to\u00a0some point around\u00a0the 1964 military coup, but\u00a0mostly as\u00a0the Beltway\u2019s point man inside\u00a0the coup racket.<\/p>\n

Exceptionalistan\u2019s key ally in\u00a0Brazil is the oligarchy in\u00a0Sao Paulo, the wealthiest state and home to\u00a0the financial capital of\u00a0Latin America. This is Brazil\u2019s A-list. It\u2019s from\u00a0their ranks that an eventual \u201cnational savior\u201d may eventually spring up.<\/p>\n

Once the peripherals are history, then no holds would be barred to\u00a0criminalize \u2013 and imprison \u2013 an array of\u00a0leftist leaders, Lula included, as\u00a0well as\u00a0manufacture a fake election legitimized by\u00a0a noxious Supreme Court justice, Gilmar Mendes, a PSDB stooge.<\/p>\n

It all hinges on\u00a0what happens in\u00a0the next two months. The prosecutor general finally asked the Supreme Court to\u00a0throw three top peripherals in\u00a0jail; they are all accused of\u00a0plotting to\u00a0derail the Car Wash investigation\u00a0\u2014 an extremely complex juridical-political-police network of\u00a0myriad concentric\/parallel circles.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the final judgment of\u00a0Dilma\u2019s impeachment at\u00a0the Senate is bound to\u00a0happen on\u00a0August 16 \u2013 11 days after\u00a0the start of\u00a0the Olympic Games. The coup plotters suffered a heavy blow as\u00a0they were trying hard to\u00a0accelerate the proceedings. As it stands, the outcome is uncertain; after\u00a0the leaks, four to\u00a0five senators are already wavering, as\u00a0the leaks also implicate Temer personally. The \u201cleader\u201d of\u00a0a zero-credibility, corruption-crammed scam, he\u2019s among\u00a0the targets of\u00a0several corruption investigations and has just been banned<\/a> from\u00a0running to\u00a0political office for\u00a0the next 8 years.The Brazilian mainstream media monopoly (five families) \u2013 popularly referred to\u00a0as PIG, the Brazilian acronym for\u00a0Pro-Coup Media Party \u2013 has changed its anti-left tune and is now also going after\u00a0selected members of\u00a0the Temer racket.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the constitution, if both the Presidency and Vice-Presidency are vacated in\u00a0the last two years of\u00a0a given term, it\u2019s up\u00a0to Congress to\u00a0elect the new President.<\/p>\n

This implies two possible scenarios. If Dilma is not impeached, it\u2019s increasingly likely she will call for\u00a0new presidential elections before\u00a0the end of\u00a0the year.<\/p>\n

If she is impeached, the PIG will tolerate the stooge-crammed Temer interim racket until\u00a0January 2017 at\u00a0the most. The next step would be what Serra and about-to-be-jailed Senate leader Renan Calheiros are campaigning for; the end of\u00a0direct presidential elections and the onset of\u00a0Brazilian-style parliamentarianism.<\/p>\n

The man best positioned to\u00a0be the national savior in\u00a0this case is former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso \u2013 also former \u201cPrince of\u00a0Sociology\u201d and a major star (during the 1960s and early 1970s) of\u00a0the dependency theory, then metamorphosed into\u00a0an avid neoliberal. Cardoso is a very close pal of\u00a0both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. The Beltway\/Wall Street axis loves him. Cardoso would be \u201celected\u201d mostly by\u00a0the pack of\u00a0Congress hyenas who got the Dilma impeachment<\/a> rolling on\u00a0April 17.The hard node of\u00a0golpeachment goes way beyond\u00a0peripheral Brazilian elites. It is comprised of\u00a0a political party (the PSDB); the Globo media empire; the Federal Police (very cozy with\u00a0the FBI); the Public Ministry; most of\u00a0the Supreme Court; and sectors of\u00a0the military. Only the Beltway\/Wall Street axis has the means and the necessary pull to\u00a0regiment all these players \u2013 by\u00a0hard cash, blackmail or promises of\u00a0glory.<\/p>\n

And that ties in\u00a0with key unanswered questions regarding the recent audio leaks. Who taped the conversations. Who leaked them. Why now. Who profits from\u00a0a nation in\u00a0total political\/economic\/juridical chaos, with\u00a0virtually all institutions totally discredited.<\/p>\n

\"brics<\/a>Neoliberalism or chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those were the days when Washington could mastermind, with\u00a0impunity, an old-fashioned military coup in\u00a0its backyard \u2013 as\u00a0in Brazil 1964. Or as\u00a0in Chile during\u00a0the original 9\/11 \u2013 in\u00a01973, as\u00a0seen through\u00a0crack Chilean film maker Patricio Guzman\u2019s moving documentary<\/a> about\u00a0Salvador Allende.<\/p>\n

History, predictably, now repeats itself as\u00a0farce as\u00a0the 2016 coup has turned Brazil \u2013 the 7th largest economy in\u00a0the world and a key Global South player \u2013 into\u00a0a Honduras or Paraguay (where recent US-supported coups were successful).<\/p>\n

I have shown how the coup in\u00a0Brazil is an extremely sophisticated Hybrid War<\/a> operation going way beyond\u00a0unconventional warfare (UW); four generation warfare (4GW); color revolutions; and R2P (\u201cresponsibility to\u00a0protect\u201d), all the way to\u00a0the summit of\u00a0smart power; a political-financial-judicial-mainstream media soft coup unveiled in\u00a0slow motion. This is the beauty of\u00a0a coup when promoted by\u00a0democratic institutions.<\/p>\n

Neoliberalism may have failed, as\u00a0even the IMF research<\/a> wing has concluded. But its rotten corpse still encumbers the whole planet. Neoliberalism is not only an economic model; it surreptitiously takes over\u00a0the juridical realm as\u00a0well. In another perverse facet of\u00a0shock doctrine, neoliberalism cannot prevail without\u00a0a juridical framework.When constitutional attributions are redirected to\u00a0Congress that keeps the Executive under\u00a0control while generating a culture of\u00a0political corruption. Politics is subordinated to\u00a0economics. Companies engage in\u00a0campaign financing and buy politicians to\u00a0be able to\u00a0influence the political powers that be.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Washington works. And that\u2019s also the key to\u00a0understand the role of\u00a0former leader of\u00a0the Brazilian lower house Eduardo Cunha; he ran a campaign financing racket out\u00a0of Congress itself, controlling dozens of\u00a0politicians while profiting from\u00a0proverbially fat state contracts.<\/p>\n

The Three Stooges in\u00a0what I called the Provisional Banana Scoundrel Republic<\/a> are Cunha, Calheiros and Temer. Temer is a mere puppet while Cunha remains a sort of\u00a0shadow Prime Minister, running the show. But not for\u00a0long. He\u2019s already been suspended as\u00a0the speaker in\u00a0Congress; he bagged millions of\u00a0US dollars in\u00a0kickbacks for\u00a0those fat contracts and stashed the loot in\u00a0secret Swiss accounts; now it\u2019s a matter of\u00a0time before\u00a0the Supreme Court has the balls \u2013 it\u2019s not a given\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0throw him in\u00a0the slammer.<\/p>\n

NATO vs. BRICS, all across\u00a0the spectrum<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that brings us once again to\u00a0The Big Picture, as\u00a0we proceed in parallel<\/a> with\u00a0an analysis by\u00a0Rafael Bautista, the head of\u00a0a decolonization study group in\u00a0La Paz, Bolivia. He\u2019s one of\u00a0the best and brightest in\u00a0South America who\u2019s very much alert to\u00a0the fact that whatever happens in\u00a0Brazil in\u00a0the next few months will drive the future not only of\u00a0South America but\u00a0the whole Global South.<\/p>\n

Exceptionalistan\u2019s project for\u00a0Brazil is no less than\u00a0the imposition of\u00a0a remixed Monroe doctrine. The main target of\u00a0a planned neoliberal restoration is to\u00a0cut off\u00a0South America from\u00a0the BRICS \u2013 as\u00a0in, essentially, the Russia-China strategic partnership.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a short window of\u00a0opportunity after\u00a0all those years under\u00a0the Bush-Obama continuum where Washington was obsessed with\u00a0MENA (Middle East\/Northern Africa), a.k.a. the Greater Middle East. Now South America is back in\u00a0a starring role in\u00a0the geopolitical (soft) war theatre. Getting rid of\u00a0Dilma, Lula, the Workers\u2019 Party, by\u00a0all means available, is only the start.It all comes back to\u00a0the same, defining 21st century war; NATO against\u00a0the BRICS; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); and ultimately the Russia-China strategic partnership. Smashing the \u201cB\u201d in\u00a0BRICS carries with\u00a0it the bonus of\u00a0smashing Mercosur (the South American common market); Unasur (the political Union of\u00a0South American Nations); ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance); and South American integration as\u00a0a whole, compounded with\u00a0integration with\u00a0key emerging Global South players such as\u00a0Iran.<\/p>\n

The ongoing destabilization of \u201cSyraq\u201d fits the Empire of\u00a0Chaos; when there\u2019s no regional integration, the only other possibility is balkanization. And yet Russia graphically demonstrated to\u00a0Beltway planners they cannot win a war in\u00a0Syria while Iran demonstrated after\u00a0the nuclear deal that it won\u2019t become a Washington vassal. So the Empire of\u00a0Chaos might as\u00a0well secure its own backyard.<\/p>\n

A new geopolitical framework had to\u00a0be part of\u00a0the package. That\u2019s where the concept of \u201cNorth America\u201d<\/a> fits in, backed by\u00a0the Council on\u00a0Foreign Relations and devised mostly by\u00a0former Iraq surge superstar David Petraeus and former World Bank honcho Bob Zoellick, now with\u00a0Goldman Sachs. Call it a mini who\u2019s who of\u00a0Exceptionalistan.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t see it enounced in\u00a0public, but\u00a0the Petraeus\/Zoellick concept of \u201cNorth America\u201d presupposes regime changing and gobbling up\u00a0Venezuela. The Caribbean is seen as\u00a0a Mare Nostrum, an American lake. \u201cNorth America\u201d is in\u00a0fact a strategic offensive.<\/p>\n

It implies controlling the massive oil and water wealth of\u00a0the Orinoco and the Amazonas, something that would forever guarantee Exceptionalistan\u2019s preeminence south of\u00a0the border.<\/p>\n

The Caribbean is already a done deal; after\u00a0all Washington controls CAFTA. South America is a tougher nut to\u00a0crack, roughly polarized by\u00a0what\u2019s left of\u00a0ALBA and the US-driven Pacific Alliance. With Brazil falling to\u00a0a neoliberal restoration, it\u2019s over\u00a0as a promoter of\u00a0regional integration. Mercosur would eventually be absorbed into\u00a0the Pacific Alliance \u2013 especially with\u00a0a man like\u00a0Serra as\u00a0Brazil\u2019s top diplomat. So, politically, South America must be annulled at\u00a0all costs.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left for\u00a0South America would be its aggregation\u00a0\u2014 as\u00a0marginal players, part of\u00a0the US-driven Pacific Alliance\u00a0\u2014 to\u00a0those NATO on\u00a0trade deals, the TPP and TTIP. The \u201cpivot to\u00a0Asia\u201d \u2013 of\u00a0which TPP is the trade arm\u00a0\u2014 is the Obama doctrine\u2019s push for\u00a0containment of\u00a0China, not only in\u00a0Asia but\u00a0also across\u00a0Asia-Pacific. Thus it\u2019s natural that China (Brazil\u2019s number one trade partner) should also be contained in\u00a0the hegemon\u2019s backyard, South America.<\/p>\n

From the Atlantic to\u00a0the Pacific, and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s never enough to\u00a0stress the geo-economic importance of\u00a0South America. The only way South America can be fully integrated to\u00a0the multipolar world is by\u00a0opening up\u00a0to the Pacific, boosting its strategic connection with\u00a0Asia, especially China. That\u2019s where the Chinese push to\u00a0invest in\u00a0a massivehigh-speed rail project<\/a> uniting the Brazilian Atlantic coast with\u00a0Peru in\u00a0the Pacific fits in. That\u2019s South American interconnectivity in\u00a0a nutshell. If Brazil is politically annulled, none of\u00a0this will ever happen.<\/p>\n

So every coup is now literally allowed in\u00a0South America; indirect attacks to\u00a0the Brazilian currency, the real; bribing local comprador elites with\u00a0the backing of\u00a0the global financial system; a concerted attempt at\u00a0the implosion, simultaneously, of\u00a0the top three economies: Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela<\/a>. SOUTHCOM went so far as\u00a0to produce a report<\/a> on \u201cVenezuela Freedom\u201d earlier this year, signed by\u00a0commander Kurt Tidd, which proposes a \u201cstrategy of\u00a0tension\u201d, complete with \u201cencirclement\u201d and \u201csuffocation\u201d techniques and allowing to\u00a0mix street action with\u00a0a \u201ccalculated\u201d use of\u00a0armed violence. Echoes of\u00a0Chile 1973 do apply.South America is now arguably the prime geopolitical space where Exceptionalistan is laying the bases to\u00a0restore its unrivalled hegemony\u00a0\u2014 as\u00a0part of\u00a0a multi-dimensional, geo-finance war against\u00a0the BRICS bent on\u00a0perpetuating the unipolar world.<\/p>\n

All previous moves have lead to\u00a0this geostrategy of\u00a0imploding the BRICS and reducing South America to\u00a0an appendix of\u00a0North America.<\/p>\n

Wikileaks revealed how the NSA spied on\u00a0Petrobras. In 2008 Brazil came up\u00a0with its own National Defense Strategy, focused on\u00a0two key areas; the South Atlantic and the Amazon. This did not sit well with\u00a0SOUTHCOM. Unasur should have developed it to\u00a0a continental level, but\u00a0they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Lula decided to\u00a0award to\u00a0Petrobras the prime exploitation of\u00a0the pre-salt deposits \u2013 the largest oil discovery of\u00a0the 21st century. Dilma\u2019s administration gave a firm push to\u00a0the BRICS\u2019s New Development Bank (based on\u00a0the Brazilian BNDES) and also decided to\u00a0accept Iranian payments bypassing the US dollar. Anyone involved in\u00a0South-South trade bypassing the US dollar enters a kill list.<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate of\u00a0Wall Street, the Pentagon, the industrial-military complex and the neocons. She is the Goddess of\u00a0War<\/a> \u2013 and in\u00a0a Bush-Obama-Clinton continuum she will go to\u00a0war against\u00a0any player in\u00a0the Global South that dares to\u00a0defy Exceptionalistan.<\/p>\n

So the die is cast. We will know for\u00a0sure by\u00a0the time there\u2019s a new US President\u00a0\u2014 and arguably a new, unelected Brazilian President\u00a0\u2014 in\u00a0early 2017. The geostrategic game though remains the same; Brazil must fall so BRICS-led integration must fall, and Exceptionalistan may concentrate all its firepower in\u00a0an all-out confrontation against\u00a0Russia-China.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of \u201cGlobalistan<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cRed Zone Blues<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cObama does Globalistan<\/a>\u201d (2009) and \u201cEmpire of Chaos<\/a>\u201d (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is \u201c2030<\/a>\u201c, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theinternationalreporter.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the BRICS, but the future of a new multipolar world is in the balance. And it all hinges on what happens in Brazil in the next few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}