Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, prophetically said, "In the name of freedom, the United States of North America seem to have been destined by providence to plague America with miseries." And so it has been. From the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 to the present the U.S. has routinely intervened in the internal affairs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.Invasions, occupations, coups, economic warfare, gunboat diplomacy were and remain part of Washington's arsenal. The major threat to U.S. hegemony is independent nationalism. It is seen as a "virus" which might spread. Hence the hostility to Fidel Castro's overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1959 and today to Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.

Tariq Ali, an internationally renowned writer, was born in Lahore in 1943. It was then a part of British-ruled India, now in Pakistan. For many years he has been based in London where he is an editor of New Left Review. He's written more than a dozen books on world history and politics. A charismatic speaker, he is in great demand all over the world. In his spare time he is a filmmaker, playwright and novelist. He is the author of Clash of Fundamentalism, Bush in Babylon, and Speaking of Empire & Resistance with David Barsamian. His latest book is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Axis of Hope.