En este fascinante testimonio, John Perkins relata su particular trayectoria personal, de servidor obediente del Imperio a defensor apasionado de los derechos de los oprimidos. Discretamente seleccionado por la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad estadounidense y puesto en la nómina de una firma internacional de consultoría, estuvo en Indonesia, Panamá, Ecuador, Colombia, Arabia Saudí, Irán y otros países estratégicamente importantes del planeta. Su misión consistió en fomentar medidas políticas favorables a los intereses de lo que el autor llama la corporatocracia estadounidense (la alianza entre la administración, la banca y las corporaciones). En apariencia se trataba de remediar la pobreza, pero en la práctica esas políticas alienaban a los países y acabaron conduciendo al 11-S y al aumento del odio contra los EE.UU.

John Perkins en el 2004 escribió un libro titulado "Confesiones de un gángster económico" en él afirma haber jugado un papel en el proceso de colonización económica de los países del Tercer Mundo en nombre de lo que describe como una conspiración de corporaciones, bancos y el gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Explica lo que todos conocemos pero él lo cuenta de primera mano.

Discretamente seleccionado por la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad estadounidense y puesto en la nómina de una firma internacional de consultoría, Perkins estuvo en Indonesia, Panamá, Ecuador, Colombia, Arabia Saudí, Irán y otros países estratégicamente importantes del planeta. Su misión consistió en fomentar medidas políticas favorables a los intereses de lo que el autor llama la corporatocracia estadounidense (la alianza entre la administración, la banca y las corporaciones). En apariencia se trataba de remediar la pobreza, pero en la práctica esas políticas alienaban a los países y acabaron conduciendo al 11-S y al aumento del odio contra los EE.UU

Perkins fue reclutado en los 60 por la NSA (National Securities Agency), para timar a países pobres prestándoles más dinero del que podrían pagar, para exigir luego su "libra de carne" y hacerse cargo de sus economías. El autor explica la cruda visión sobre la trastienda de la globalización en la cual instituciones como el Banco Mundial y el FMI estuvieron al servicio de las grandes corporaciones que sumergieron a muchos países en la esclavitud de la deuda.

De acuerdo a Perkins, la hegemonía que emprendió Estados Unidos al terminar la segunda guerra mundial, no requirió de acciones militares, sino de operaciones de estos “sicarios” (como él los describe), que llegaban a los países a ofrecer importantes acuerdos comerciales y de infraestructuras (construcción de puertos, carreteras, industrias), que beneficiaban a los Estados Unidos y a un puñado de lugareños. Más aún, el dinero que se gestionaba a través del Banco Mundial no iba directamente al país sino que a las corporaciones estadounidenses, pero la deuda quedaba a cargo de todos los ciudadanos.

El modus operandi según explica era el siguiente
Nuestras empresas identificaban un país que poseía algo que ellas codiciaban. Luego llegaban los Gansters económicos para convencer a los dirigentes de ese país de que lo que necesitaban eran préstamos ingentes del Banco Mundial y sus organizaciones hermanas; sin embargo, el dinero, se informaba a los dirigentes, sería entregado a las grandes empresas estadounidenses para que construyeran proyectos de infraestructura.

Al cabo de pocos años, los GE regresaban al país. “Parece que están a punto de retrasarse en el pago de esos enormes préstamos que aceptaron”. Lo que tienen que hacer es vender su petróleo, o cualquier otro recurso, barato a nuestras empresas; anular las leyes laborales y medioambientales que nos plantean problemas; aceptar no imponer nunca aranceles a las mercancías de Estados Unidos; aceptar las barreras arancelarias que queremos aplicar a nuestros productos; privatizar sus servicios públicos, escuelas y otras instituciones públicas y venderlas a nuestras empresas…
Cuando los dirigentes se resisten son derrocados o asesinados.
(Ángeles García Portela) ( )

One of the most interesting books I've read in a long time.

Now, in the interests of the other side of the story, the Department of State has referred to a lack of documented evidence while economic columnist Mallaby for the Washington Post and others disagrees with Mr. Perkins overall understanding of the workings of international finance.

Given the above caveats above, it was still an interesting book and the author certainly, given the current political climate, would not be found anywhere near the Republican camp; at best I'd classify him as an older style Democrat; none of this bares directly upon the events in the book, but does influence, perhaps, his interpretation of those events.

International Finance is a whole other level way beyond our common mundane interactions with Commercial Banks; and one which interacts between the connections of Central Banks, major international corporations, and major world governments. Just look at the recent interaction reported in 2022 of the IMF negotiation with Argentina for continued loans for an example of the reality of this assertion. (This book was published in 2004)

Anybody who has grown up during the two Gulf Wars and recalls the "Blood for Oil" mantra during those events will find this book an interesting take on those events, and the current, and past, situation in the Middle East.

There is proverbially more than one to skin a cat, and certainly - throughout history - economic warfare has been just as deadly, and certainly more stealthy, than open military conflict.

Worth a read; especially for a unique viewpoint on relatively recent history. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10527295

It is often the personal stories that tell the bigger truths. As with Barbara Ehrenreich's intensely personal Nickel and Dimed, Perkins' story illuminates a larger picture in a way that more scholarly treatises cannot match.

I value the perspective I get from Noam Chomsky and Chalmers Johnson and many others who have written about our modern empire. None of these works, though, explains it from the ground up. Perkins does that.

In this book, written in spurts since the early 1980s, Perkins really does tell it like it is. This is the book I have been waiting for, the book that fills in the blanks left behind by the writers of global theories, the book that tells us how it really happens. It is one thing to read that the United States engineered ousters of democratically-elected leaders who did not do the bidding of our corporations. It is another to read of the actual steps that led to these actions. As one who likes to be able to visualize all the steps, I found great comfort in reading a well-written personal story that allows me to do this.

In this rightly-named confession, Perkins puts on his hair shirt and chastises himself as he explains how he gave in to temptation again and again over several decades, while he worked to build an American corporation's profits at the expense of third-world countries. He does not describe in detail the benefits he accrued from being Satan's handyman. We do not hear stories of his exploits with women, of his flaunting his power, the meat of a LifeTime movie. These fruits of his labor are glossed over in favor of greater descriptions of the occasional pangs of conscience.

Take it as a given, then, that Perkins was right for the job of economic hit man because he was so easily tempted by material wealth, power, and adulation. There was, in his character, though, a little hint of conscience. He was interested in the world's people, happy to learn other languages and ways of living, open to old as well as new ideas. Thus he was able to make a more honest comparison of the world according to global corporations and the world as seen and lived by indigenous people. And he was able to see that his work only benefitted the few.

There was in him, as well, the radical view that a benefit to the few was not much of a benefit. I can see this story translated successfully to the big screen; either as a documentary or as the story of one man. Two very different films; either would be dramatic and informative. There are scenes in this book that could have come from a Graham Greene novel (and let's not forget that Greene tells the truth through fiction): clandestine meetings, sudden flights to escape uprisings, epiphanies on the beach.

By its nature, a memoir of this type cannot fully be documented. To the extent that it could be, it is, with many pages of notes and references. These private memories, though, may never be proven to be either true or false. It is my greatest wish that Perkins is telling the whole truth all the way through. Even the smallest of fibs could tarnish a work of great importance, given our media's inability to see bigger pictures. The real message, though, is clearly written and inescapable: this is not the story of "they", a "they" that can simply be removed from power. It is the story of us. [originally written in November 2004]
( )

4 stars only, because the narrator sometimes really got on my nerves. The book is very interesting, though, so I have already downloaded the sequel...it can make quite a depressing read/listen, however it is sadly true. ( )