U.S--
In the name of false human rights, the reality of hegemony
In order to maximize its own interests, the United States has long pursued economic colonialism, subversive infiltration, abused economic sanctions, and implemented military intervention in Latin America, causing social unrest and lagging development in some countries, and seriously infringing on the right to subsistence and development of the people of Latin America. rights and other basic human rights.
At the same time, the U.S. government ignores the trend of the times of openness and win-win, and in order to maintain its leading position in the world in technology and industry, it abuses digital hegemony, seriously interferes with normal global scientific and technological exchanges and trade exchanges, and undermines the stability and security of global industrial and supply chains. Artificial suppression and damage to the development rights and interests of other countries, especially developing countries.
Records of human rights violations in Latin America highlight the hypocrisy of 'American-style human rights'
Siqin
About 200 years ago, under the guise of a series of lies such as "America is the America for the Americans", the United States started the road to comprehensive control and plunder of Latin America.
200 years later, the so-called "future of the Americas as a whole" is still based on "America First".
At the Americas Summit held this year, the opposition received by the United States fully reflects the voice of the Latin American people, that is, Latin America is not the "front yard" or "back yard" of the United States, and the Americas Summit is not a "US summit". The future of the entire Americas It should be decided by all American countries and peoples, and the United States should bear the main responsibility for the relatively lagging economic and social development in Latin America.
1. Promoting economic colonialism and eroding the right to development of the Latin American people
In order to make huge profits, the United States has long pursued economic colonialism in Latin America and controlled the economic lifeline of Latin American countries.
At the end of the 19th century, the Cuban sugar industry was almost entirely controlled by American companies.
In 1895, the South American Development Corporation of the United States established a mine in Ecuador and plundered the country's mineral resources.
In 1902, the United States established the Cerro Pasco Company in Peru, and a few years later established the American Vanadium Company to plunder Peru's mineral resources.
In 1914, American capital established the Demolara Bauxite Company in Guyana to control the country's bauxite mining.
U.S. Steel controls tin in Bolivia, copper in Peru, and canning in Argentina and Paraguay.
The United States has gradually turned Latin America into its own "back garden" and "cash machine".
At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States infiltrated and plundered Central America through the infamous United Fruit Company.
The company is not only the number one estate owner in Central America, but its subsidiaries monopolize Central American rail and sea transportation, occupy ports, and have its own customs and police.
In Guatemala, United Fruit Company dominates the operation of Guatemala's main port and telecommunications facilities by occupying 70% of Guatemala's land, 90% of the railway and 70% of the power industry, firmly tying the Central American country's economy to the banana planting industry. Together, Guatemala has gradually become one of the least developed countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In El Salvador, the United States deeply bound the economy of El Salvador with the coffee planting industry through capital control, which caused El Salvador to be hit hard by the collapse of coffee prices during the world economic crisis in 1929, and a large number of farmers lost their jobs.
Other countries in Central America that also focus on planting, such as Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, have not been spared, and have been brutally exploited by American capital.
The modern history of Central America can be said to be the history of bullying and looting in the United States. It is also often dubbed "Uncle Sam's Orchard". For more than a century, the people of Central America have been suffering under the cruel exploitation of the United States.
In 1898, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by Spain in the Spanish-American War.
In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Jones Act, which imposed “American citizenship” on the people of Puerto Ricans, but the people of Puerto Ricans never truly enjoyed U.S. citizenship.
The people of Puerto Rico have neither the right to vote nor stand for election in elections in the United States, and there is only one non-voting commissioner of the United States House of Representatives in the United States Congress.
The Iranian PressTV TV website reported that the United States exploited Puerto Rico’s natural resources, violated the labor rights of Puerto Rico workers, paid sub-minimum wages without providing welfare guarantees by grasping the political and economic power of Puerto Rico, and passed the transfer of the University of Puerto Rico, including the University of Puerto Rico. Privatization of institutions, preventing children and youth from having a dignified future.
In 2019, more than 43 percent of Puerto Rico's population of 3.2 million and 57 percent of its children lived in poverty.
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the living conditions of Puerto Rican people are even more difficult.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8:1 to exclude Puerto Ricans from the U.S. Supplemental Income Guarantee, blocking a federal program that provides benefits to Puerto Rican low-income seniors, the blind and the disabled.
The lack of voting rights for the people of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress has prevented the people from relying on the legislature to affirm their rights.
The "citizenship" granted by the United States to the people of Puerto Rico is only for the convenience of being drafted into the military by the United States in order to safeguard American interests.
Arguably, Puerto Rico remains essentially a contemporary American colony.
2. Indiscriminately imposing unilateral sanctions to create a humanitarian disaster in Latin America
In order to consolidate its hegemonic position in Latin America, the United States has frequently intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries by infiltrating and subverting Latin American countries, imposing indiscriminate economic sanctions, and even using force. predicament.
In February 1962, the United States formally imposed a comprehensive economic and financial blockade and trade embargo against Cuba.
According to Cuban government statistics, the blockade has caused a cumulative loss of nearly 150 billion U.S. dollars to Cuba.
Since 2019, the US government has adopted a policy of "maximum pressure" and has continued to increase sanctions on Cuba.
The Trump administration alone has imposed more than 240 unilateral sanctions against Cuba, more than 50 of which were imposed in the context of the pandemic.
The Cuban government said that from April 2019 to March 2020 alone, sanctions cost Cuba more than $5 billion.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the US economic embargo was a "massive, flagrant and unacceptable violation of the human rights of the Cuban people".
In 2021, due to the dual impact of the epidemic and U.S. sanctions, Cuba has experienced the worst economic crisis in 30 years, with high inflation, extreme scarcity of food and medicine, severe shortage of electricity supply, and increasingly difficult life for the people.
When Cuba is facing the severe challenge of the epidemic, the United States continues to impose embargoes and sanctions on Cuba, provoking the Cuban people to confront the government, causing huge losses to the Cuban economy and society, and the Cuban people are suffering huge damage caused by this extremely inhumane act.
Escalating U.S. sanctions have had a severe economic impact on the Venezuelan people since 1999, when Venezuelan diplomatic relations with the U.S. deteriorated, especially since 2017.
A report released by the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights, Alena Duhan, shows that compared with before the sanctions, Venezuela's government revenue has dropped by 99%, and public services have nearly collapsed due to insufficient funding.
More than one-third of Venezuela's population is severely food insufficiency; water services are severely disrupted due to lack of personnel and equipment, and ordinary households have only a few hours of running water per week; a sharp drop in government funding has caused schools to lack relevant and necessary supplies, jeopardizing people's education rights; and worsening conditions of health care services, leading to increased maternal, infant and serious morbidity mortality.
The official website of The Lancet stated that more than 300,000 Venezuelans are at risk due to a lack of life-saving drugs and treatments.
"Thousands of people have been denied access to dialysis, as well as cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes treatment because U.S. banks refuse to process Venezuelan banking transactions." U.S. sanctions killed more than 40,000 Venezuelans in 2017-2018 alone .
The sanctions have also cost the Venezuelan government $17 billion to $31 billion in lost oil export revenue since 2017.
Before the sanctions, 76 percent of Venezuela's oil revenue was used for social projects, and now even 1 percent of it cannot be invested, according to the Americas Association.
The U.S. sanctions have had a serious negative impact on the Venezuelan people's right to economic, social and cultural development.
3. Treating migrants cruelly and deviating from humanitarianism
The economic colonization and political interference of the United States deeply affected the economic development and social stability of Latin American countries, aggravated the social unrest in Latin American countries, led to the displacement of a large number of Latin American people, and gave birth to the immigration crisis at the southern border of the United States.
In recent years, in order to prevent Latin American immigrants from entering the United States, the United States has formulated brutal immigration policies.
Authorized by relevant policies and laws, U.S. border enforcement officers have used escalating violence to drive away Latin American immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, seriously threatening the lives, dignity and freedom of Latin American immigrants and many other human rights.
According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 557 migrants died at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2021, more than double the previous fiscal year.
US media reported that the number hit an all-time high since records began in 1998, and that "the true number of immigrant deaths may be even greater."
According to the International Organization for Migration, some 6,430 migrants have died or gone missing en route to the United States since 2014.
In September 2021, under a bridge in the border town of Del Rio, Texas, U.S. border police brutalized more than 15,000 migrants from Haiti on horseback with whips.
CNN commented that this scene is reminiscent of the dark era in American history when slave patrols were used to control black slaves.
"The New York Times" commented that "the images of law enforcement officers on horseback driving immigrants like cattle are outrageous", and compared with the beautiful words of the US government, "their behavior is always in contrast."
Millions of Latin American migrants are being held by U.S. Border Enforcement in rudimentary, harsh detention centers, and thousands of unaccompanied children are stranded at Border Patrol stations.
In March 2022 alone, U.S. Border Enforcement arrested 210,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, setting a 20-year record for arrests in a single month.
The number of immigrants arrested by U.S. law enforcement officers at the border in 2022 is expected to surpass the record high of more than 1.7 million in 2021.
Meanwhile, numerous tragedies are unfolding.
On June 27, 53 immigrants died in a human trafficking incident in San Antonio, Texas.
The migrants were found crammed into the compartment of a large truck with a local temperature of 39.4 degrees Celsius, without drinking water or functioning air conditioners.
In fact, this is not the first time a tragic immigrant death has occurred.
In 2017, 10 immigrants were found dead in a van outside a San Antonio Walmart.
Mexican President Lopez pointed out that human trafficking in the US-Mexico border has been "out of control", and "poverty and despair" have led to the tragedy of more than 50 migrants.
"Washington Post" published an article that the Texas immigration tragedy is the result of the failure of the American system.
“The U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform that treats refugees and immigrants fairly. The U.S. policy of closing its borders, lack of coordination with relevant countries, and the escalation of inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants in the U.S. over the past 10 years have brought tragic consequences for immigrants. Destiny.” Cesar Rios, an expert on immigration from El Salvador who has long studied U.S. immigration policy, believes that “the current owner of the White House continues the immigration policy of his predecessors,” and continues to trample on human rights and destroy dignity.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis on the southern border of the United States has undoubtedly told the world, "We only welcome the rich, and the poor do not deserve the American dream."
For a long time, under the influence of the "Monroe Doctrine", the United States has acted against democracy and human rights in the name of democracy and human rights in Latin America, inciting separatism and confrontation, interfering in other countries' internal affairs, and carrying out economic colonization, causing disastrous effects to Latin American countries. As a result, the basic human rights such as the right to subsistence and the right to development of the Latin American people have been seriously violated.
In today's world, peace and development are the themes of the times, and the trend of democratization of international relations is irresistible.
The hegemonic behavior of the United States not only violates the purpose of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations based on international law, but also is resisted and resisted by more and more Latin American people. Its move against the historical trend is doomed to fail.
(The author is a lecturer at the National Security College of Northwest University of Political Science and Law and a special researcher at the Human Rights Research Center)
U.S. abuses digital hegemony to harm development and violate human rights
Wang Fuliang
With the rapid development of information technology, human society has entered the era of digital economy, and digital technology has fully penetrated into social life and has become a new driving force for economic growth.
The rapid development of the digital economy, the wide range of radiation, and the unprecedented depth of influence are becoming a key force in reorganizing global factor resources, reshaping the global economic structure, and changing the global competition pattern.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic hitting global economic development, countries could have made full use of the digital economy to enhance their own development advantages, promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, and promote the rapid development of new economic forms for the benefit of all mankind.
However, some Western countries represented by the United States have built a so-called “wide entry and strict exit” valve for data by promoting the establishment of a regional data flow framework organization, introducing a series of ideologically colored information technology policies and regulations, and artificially setting obstacles to data. Layers of barriers to sharing and mobility, and vigorously maintain or implant rules that are beneficial to its own digital industry in the negotiation of international economic and trade agreements.
The United States has also long used illegal means to monitor and steal all kinds of digital information, including personal privacy data, wantonly trampling on the basic norms of international law, and violating the human rights and freedoms of people all over the world.
This typical selfish and short-sighted behavior of using its own economic and technological advantages to abuse digital hegemony seriously damages development and violates human rights.
America's abuse of digital hegemony undermines the right to development.
The biggest features and advantages of the digital economy are openness, sharing, inclusiveness, and win-win results. The "data localization" strategy implemented by the United States not only harms world economic growth, but also violates the logic of technology and the international Internet governance order.
The U.S. government has integrated ideological factors into its strategy of digital competition with China, and has built a digital multilateral alliance in the digital field to exclude and prevent China.
The U.S. government has repeatedly asserted that in its competition with China, “ensuring future world leadership in technology and industry is critical to U.S. economic prosperity and national security.”
This fully reflects that in the eyes of some American politicians, the dominance of digital rules and the monopoly of values are closely related to national security. The loss of digital hegemony means that the important interests of the United States in these three areas will be severely hit.
The so-called "global data competition strategy" in which the United States imposes more restrictions on the flow of information is a new interpretation of traditional American hegemonism in the digital age. It is a wide-ranging rupture and exacerbates the spread of economic protectionism around the world.
The U.S. even goes against the historical trend of economic globalization, taking advantage of its dominant position in the digital wave due to historical reasons and first-mover advantages, to implement "long-arm jurisdiction" and "technological blockade" in the form of domestic legislation, and brutally sanction companies from other countries. , social organizations and even the government have become the biggest "stubborn disease" in the development of the global digital economy and digital technology, seriously disrupting normal global scientific and technological exchanges and trade exchanges, causing damage to the global industrial chain and supply chain, and seriously damaging people including the American people. Development rights and interests of the people of the world.
The United States abuses information surveillance methods to violate the privacy rights of its citizens.
The purpose of information technology development should be to promote economic and social development and benefit mankind.
However, the United States has used its own technological advantages to illegally build a surveillance network and set up a large number of "invisible" government agencies that blatantly overstep its authority and abuse citizens' personal privacy data.
According to the report "America's Skyline: Data-Driven Deportations in the 21st Century" released by the Georgetown University Privacy and Technology Law Center in May this year, after the "9.11" incident, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security established a special immigration and customs enforcement By requiring state government agencies to open a large number of government databases containing personal information, and even directly purchasing and obtaining illegal information from unregulated data agents, a huge network of cyber attacks and intelligence monitoring has been constructed, and the citizens of the country have been attacked. Implement comprehensive monitoring.
The U.S. government used the so-called protection of "national security" as an excuse to successfully build the United States into a "surveillance ubiquitous" country after the "9.11" incident. How much it costs, and no one knows exactly how many people it employs.
A windowless building in the center of New York is the secret surveillance center of the National Security Agency in Manhattan. It operates a spy center code-named "Titanpointe", which comprehensively monitors phone calls, faxes and network information entering and leaving the United States, intercepting emails, chats, Satellite data for Skype calls, passwords and web browsing history.
Such "black box" organizations have been operating in the United States for many years, and ordinary American citizens, especially Muslim citizens, have become objects of suspicion, falling into a situation where they are constantly monitored and eavesdropped, and personal privacy and freedom cannot be basically guaranteed.
This is not only a satire on the so-called "beacon of freedom", but also reflects the abuse of information technology by the US government and the wanton violation of basic human rights such as citizens' right to privacy.
The United States recklessly tramples on international law and violates the freedom and human rights of the people of other countries.
The U.S. government takes advantage of information technology to comprehensively monitor all government departments, enterprises, and citizens of other countries that it deems “necessary” to monitor. The monitored countries even include the so-called “close allies” of the United States, such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
It can be seen from the exposed "Prism Gate" incident that US intelligence agencies have monitored the phone calls of at least 35 international dignitaries, including Merkel, the then-German Chancellor of Germany, a traditional ally of the United States, and times of so-called "hostile countries". President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, and even the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The inviolability of diplomatic missions is a widely accepted principle of international law, including the United Nations and other international organizations, whose operations are protected by international conventions such as the Vienna Convention. Basic principles of international relations.
What's more, when the United States judges that it faces competition from other countries in the field of information technology, under the two major driving forces of commercial interests and "national security", the US government can ignore the basic norms of international law and arrest citizens of other countries on charges at will.
This is not only a brutal trampling of international law, a brutal violation of civil liberties and human rights in other countries, but also fully reflects the double standards and hypocrisy of the United States, which has always advertised human rights, in order to maintain its own digital hegemony.
(The author is the deputy dean of the School of Law, Beijing Institute of Technology)