USA v Fourth World

Training death squads at Fort Benning, Georgia that commit atrocities against indigenous peoples throughout Latin America is but one aspect of the US war against the Fourth World. Another aspect is supplying armaments to dictators that suppress the world indigenous movement.

According to Himal magazine, a new report has found that, out of the world’s top three weapons purchasers, two, once again, are Southasian. Both India and Pakistan again made the ignominious list, despite the warming of relations between the two countries in recent years. The third on the list is also unchanged: Saudi Arabia.

The report, by the non-partisan US-based Congressional Research Group, a division of the Library of Congress, found that, all in all, 60 percent of weapons sales last year went to developing countries, about USD 28.8 billion worth. This was a decline of about nine percent below 2005 levels, though the rankings of the top three purchasers remained the same.

Pakistan led the list off, having bought around USD 5.1 billion worth of weapons last year, followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 3.5 billion) and India (USD 3.2 billion). The study also reported that, yet again, the US was the world’s largest arms supplier, having sold around 36 percent of those weapons destined for developing countries, with a total worth of around USD 10.3 billion.

As the indigenous peoples of these countries — like those in Israel, Indonesia, and the Phillipines — struggle for basic human rights under international law, it is worth remembering that the United States of America has formally identified itself as an opponent of indigenous liberation.