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Vol. 73/No. 23      June 15, 2009

 
U.S. gov’t seeks to expand
Angola oil, diamond trade
 
BY BEN JOYCE  
Top U.S. government officials met with Angolan foreign minister Assunção dos Anjos May 19-21 in an effort to expand Washington’s economic influence in the region. The moves are part of the U.S. imperialist rulers’ efforts to assert their domination on the African continent against their rivals both economically and politically.

On May 19 the two governments signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to allow Washington more access to Angola’s vast oil and diamond reserves. Today Angola is the second largest African oil supplier to the United States and is its third largest trading partner in the sub-Saharan region.

In April Angola produced 1.7 million barrels of oil per day. This is the second highest oil production on the continent, with Nigeria slightly higher at 1.71 million. Angolan diamond production in 2006 totaled about 7.8 million carats or roughly 4.5 percent of the world share.

Washington’s relationship with Angola has been stamped by the legacy of U.S. imperialist plunder in the region, stemming from its involvement in the civil war that ensued following the defeat and subsequent pullout of the country’s Portuguese colonial rulers in 1975.

In the wake of Portugal’s withdrawal, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union gave support to rival groups vying for power. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which has held power following the fall of Portuguese rule, fought the U.S.-backed National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) until 2002.

UNITA forces were supported by an invasion from the South African military that was already closing in on the capital Luanda by November 1975. The Cuban government immediately responded to an appeal by the Angolan government for military assistance to fend off the invading apartheid forces. Havana sent more than 375,000 volunteers over the next decade and a half to help defend Angola’s independence. Cuban forces remained in Angola until May 1991 and played a decisive role in defeating the South African invasion.

The U.S. government has also been trying to bolster its position in Africa militarily. As part of transforming the U.S. military on a world scale, the U.S. Africa Command was established in February 2007 by then U.S. president George Bush shortly after Ethiopian troops and U.S. Special Forces invaded Somalia and overthrew the government that controlled the capital, Mogadishu. Its first major mission was carried out in January, flying equipment to African Union and UN troops in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Africom currently has a base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, a former French colony in the Horn of Africa. However, Washington has been unable to find a country on the continent willing to let them build a base that could serve as the command’s headquarters. Today Africom is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, with some two-dozen liaison officers posted at embassies around Africa.  
 
 
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