Those years at the end of the 20th century when Francis Fukuyama put forward his polemic thesis seem distant today: history, understood as the struggle of ideologies, had ended and, therefore, capitalism represented the last stage of social evolution.
Those were times when Gene Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institution - dedicated to promoting the study of nonviolent action - was theorizing about Color Revolutions. Meanwhile, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, a grant-making network founded by tycoon George Soros, merged in 1991 with the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne, an affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, created in 1966 to combat socialism.
In 2004, Srda Popovic and Slobodan Dinovic, two of Otpor's main leaders in Serbia, founded the Center for Applied Nonviolent Strategy and Action (Canvas). That same year, the CIA promoted the Genesis project for Cuba.
However, the dream of promoting chaos, ungovernability and disorder in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, with the aim of bringing about a change of political system, did not succeed, despite the constant updating of the imperialist strategy.
CHANGE OF STRATEGY: MULTIFORM WARFARE
The nature of warfare has changed radically. Although it may seem a categorical statement, it is a reality defined by today's conflicts, marked by the dizzying development of the technological revolution.
Unconventional multiform wars consist of planning actions aimed at generating conditions of instability and chaos in a country, in order to bring about the fall of its government. These actions are concentrated on two main fronts: the economy and the individual and collective psyche.
Economic warfare: Seeks to bring people to a state of desperation such that it annuls their ability to reason lucidly, while the promoters of character assassination act on social networks.
Attacks on the psyche: They take advantage of the effects of economic aggressions and communicational bombardment.
A key element is Military Information Support Operations (MISO), aimed at influencing "enemy" audiences, their emotions, behaviors and motivations. This term, defined by the Pentagon, replaced in 2010 the term Psyop, used since World War II.
According to the CIA, the viral nature of the internet has the potential to affect and even change a person's character in a matter of seconds, regardless of their identity or life experience. Every social media platform and website is designed to be addictive and trigger emotional outbursts.
These strategies seek to:
Summon hatred and manufacture negative perceptions.
Act on identified weaknesses, automatisms, fears and stereotypes.
To dominate stereotypes so that the manipulator can control the audience from subjective springs.
COGNITIVE WARFARE AND NEW VARIABLES
Another fundamental element of multiform warfare is Cognitive Warfare, which encompasses activities aimed at influencing, modifying or controlling perceptions, emotions, attitudes, behaviors and decision-making processes of individuals or groups, with the objective of altering their cognitive capabilities. It is an evolution of contemporary conflicts, in which battles occur not only in physical or digital fields, but also in the human mind.
THE OPERATIONS ARE ORIENTED TOWARDS TWO MAIN OBJECTIVES:
To generate in people a cognitive style resistant to any argument that contradicts their own perceptions and opinions, leading them to ignore the context and focus only on certain aspects, and deny others that are contradictory.
Other variables in Latin America include the use of paramilitarism, criminal groups, drug trafficking, judicial warfare, radical neo-Pentecostalism and induced migration.
However, the results of this strategy on the ground did not achieve their objectives; change was needed, and the manna stopped flowing from Uncle Sam's coffers.
CHANGE OF POLICY?
Let's not fool ourselves: what we are witnessing is a rethinking of strategy. For them, it is much more profitable and effective to use the large media-technological conglomerates.
Why spend millions on organizations, institutions and thousands of NGOs that did not obtain the expected results? They no longer need intermediaries; they have plenty of experience. For years they effectively used the big entertainment industry, including Hollywood, for the culture war.
Now they operate directly through the big technology platforms. Democracy" activists and others, whether they are aware of what is going on or not, work for Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta, in short, for U.S. power interests.
These conglomerates favor their "chosen ones" with visibility, provide them with subscribers and bot farms, while conveniently manipulating algorithms.
It is big business in which companies make money and influencers monetize pre-made content in the laboratories of subversion. The goal is to maximize control of the flow of money dedicated to hybrid warfare, while applying unprecedented economic and financial pressure against Washington's enemies.
At the same time, they seek to close avenues for legal and illegal emigration, and create within "enemy" countries a "pressure cooker" that will provoke mass protests and the ungovernability that will justify "humanitarian aid".
Let us remember that the central objective of this variant of unconventional warfare is to frighten, destabilize, and shock. In short, it aims to generate chaos and pave the way for military forces, with minimal losses.
