Writing in Black Agenda Report, Glen Ford notes that the network of bases being built across the African continent for use by the U.S. military is eerily reminiscent of the regime-change-ready project the Pentagon is currently re-implementing in Latin America. Having been behind the Ugandan mercenaries that committed the worst genocide since World War Two, the U.S. military through its AFRICOM plan, says Ford, is now preparing the way for the US/NATO recolonization of Africa.
As seen in Latin America, self-determination — whether by states like Bolivia, or by indigenous nations like the Mapuche — is something the US Government will not tolerate. Unlike Latin America, however, where the U.S. State Department plays an intermediary role in neoliberal colonization, it appears that in Africa the White House and the Pentagon have dispensed with the need for even false diplomacy, and have opted instead for gun-barrel diplomacy to control Africa’s vast wealth of resources.
Also as seen in Latin America, this globalization of poverty in support of corporate greed does not bode well for indigenous peoples, who are inevitably caught in the crossfire.