The scandal of offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands has yet to be completely cleared up. Thousands of names from international politicians to businessmen, artists and sportsmen were leaked in documents that indicate their links with tax havens. Personalities such as Tony Blair (Former Prime Minister of England), Sebastián Piñera (President of Chile) and Guillermo Lasso (President of Ecuador), as well as Paulo Guedes (Brazilian Economy Minister) appear in the leaks.
Is imperialism changing staff? Blair has been Prime Minister decades ago, but the other three mentioned still have important positions to be fulfilled by imperialism. In regard to Piñera, his government is going through a crisis in which the only way out of it would be a new appointed leadership. The stabilization of the country’s administration is the main concern. His government is too warned out to implement any program.
On the other hand, Guedes and Lasso still have many duties to carry out for the imperialism. Lasso has just been elected in the midst of an electoral coup in Ecuador, he is the candidate of international banks and Guedes is the bourgeoisie’s trusted man in the Bolsonaro´s government. It will not be wise to rule out any hypothesis in cases like these, but it is safe to say this is not a change of personnel, although the Americans are known to let their own allies down. The main indication is the fact that the press gave little attention to the scandal. There is nothing more than slight comments of Guedes’ name in the bourgeois press.
However, it should be assured that this is a ploy of US imperialism, for the simple fact that there is no prominent figure from the American bourgeoisie involved in the leaks, besides, it must be remembered that at the beginning of his mandate, Biden toured Latin America announcing to the world that the pivot of his government would be the fight against corruption.
A plausible hypothesis is that it could be a matter of fiscal confiscation to give capitalism survival. The economic crisis only deepens and even with the slowdown of the pandemic and the return of several important sectors of the economy it does not seem to be enough to recover the capitalist system to the same level as before.
The Evergreen ship crisis, which blocked The Suez Canal for almost a week, the crisis of semiconductor chips and finally the recent crisis of the Chinese company Evergrande show signs of weakness in the world economy. The confiscation of money in tax havens can be a way to give a momentary survival to capitalism.
Finally, it is interesting to point out that even with the size of the scandal; the left wing did not take advantage of the situation. The propaganda carried out against the children of Bolsonaro or his employee Queiroz, for example, was not repeated, although the amounts are greater and the situation more grave. This is mainly due to the petty-bourgeois left’s policy of trailing the coup bourgeoisie. As there are no harsh attacks on Guedes or any other bourgeoisie meaningful person in the press, as he is a man of confidence in the Bolsonaro government, a guarantor of neoliberal policy, the left wing does not speak on the subject.
Political Note, No. 349, from October 10th to 16th, 2021
