With
Juan Guaidó’s parallel government attempting to take power with
the backing of the U.S., it is telling that the top political donors
of those in the U.S. most fervently pushing regime change in
Venezuela have close ties to Monsanto and major financial stakes in
Bayer.
by
Whitney Webb
Part
5 - Forcing open a new market for RoundUp
Part of
Singer’s interest in Bayer may relate to Venezuela, given that Juan
Guaido’s “Plan País” to “rescue” the Venezuelan economy
includes a focus on the country’s agricultural sector. Notably,
prior to and under Chavismo, agricultural productivity and investment
in the agricultural sector took a backseat to oil production,
resulting in under 25 percent of Venezuelan land being used for
agricultural purposes despite the fact that the nation has a wealth
of arable land. The result has been that Venezuela needs to import
much of its food from abroad, most of which originate in Colombia or
the United States.
Under
Chávez and his successor, Maduro, there has been a renewed focus on
small-scale farming, food sovereignty and organic agriculture.
However, if Maduro is ousted and Guaidó moves to implement his “Plan
País,” the opposition’s coziness with foreign corporations, the
interests of U.S. coup architects in Bayer/Monsanto, and the
opposition’s past efforts to overturn the GM seed ban all suggest
that a new market for Bayer/Monsanto products — particularly
glyphosate — will open up.
South
America has long been a key market for Monsanto and — as the
company’s problems began to mount prior to the merger with Bayer —
it became a lifeline for the company due to less stringent
environmental and consumer regulations that many Western countries.
In recent years, when South American governments have opened their
countries to more “market-friendly” policies in their
agricultural sectors, Monsanto has made millions.
For
instance, when Brazil sought to expand biotechnology (i.e. GM seed)
investment in 2012, Monsanto saw a 21% increase in its sales of GM
corn seed alone, generating an additional $1 billion in profits for
the company. A similar comeback scenario is needed more than
every by Bayer/Monsanto, as Monsanto’s legal troubles saw the
company’s profits plunge late last year.
With
countries around the world now weighing glyphosate bans as a result
of increased litigation over the chemical’s links to cancer, Bayer
needs a new market for the chemical to avoid financial ruin. As
Singer now has a significant stake in the company, he — along with
the politicians and think tanks he funds — may see promise in the
end of the anti-GM seed ban that a Guaidó-led government would
bring.
Furthermore,
given that Guaidó’s top adviser wants the Trump administration to
have a direct role in governing Venezuela if Maduro is ousted, it
seems likely that Singer would leverage his connections to keep
Bayer/Monsanto afloat amid the growing controversy surrounding
glyphosate. Such behavior on the part of Singer would hardly be
surprising in light of the fact that international financial media
have characterized him as a “ruthless opportunist” and
“overly aggressive.”
Such an
outcome would be in keeping with the increased profit margins for
Monsanto and related companies that have followed its expansion into
countries following U.S.-backed coups. For instance, after the
U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, the loans given to Ukraine by
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank forced the country
to open up and expand the use of “biotechnology” and GM crops in
its agricultural sector, and Monsanto, in particular, made millions
as the prior government’s ban on GM seeds and their associated
agrochemicals was reversed. If Maduro is ousted, a similar scenario
is likely to play out in Venezuela, given that the Guaidó-led
government made known its intention to borrow heavily from these
institutions just days after Guaidó declared himself “interim
president.”
***
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