Trade 
We were all Berliners 
November 8, 2009
By: Jorge Moreno Matos Journalist English historian Laurence Rees has said he is a cruel paradox of how, Allied victory in World War II, freedom was only for half of Europe and the other half that afforded him the victory was to change "without more, the rule of a tyrant with the other." 
November 8, 2009 To understand the history of the Berlin Wall and why it was built there to see it from this perspective: that the war just ended for millions November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. YALTA EUROPE
Between 4 and 11 February 1945 meeting in Yalta (Crimea) Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the Big Three, in order to define what will be Europe after war. The conference will decide the division of Germany and its capital, Berlin, into four Allied zones, in addition to the Nazi persecution, prosecution of war criminals and demilitarization of Germany.
A Yalta is reached with the firm conviction not to impose another Treaty of Versailles Germany, as in 1919, which in turn beget further war. Proof of this is that rejecting the absurd Morgenthau Plan, a project to dismantle the whole German industrial capacity and converting it into an agricultural country. But for Russians it is a dead letter. The Red Army in its triumphant way to Berlin, is dismantled and sent to Russia all factories can. It is the first sign of things to come.
After the capitulation of Germany on 8 May, will meet again in Potsdam, from 17 July to 2 August 1945 - the Big Three. And while it reaffirms the principles of Yalta, Stalin already shows that will not meet one of the points agreed. It is clearly determined to increase its influence in Western Europe and in maintaining which has already imposed by force in the east. The "Iron Curtain" that Churchill spoke in his famous speech in Fulton, in 1946, he has run from one side to another in Europe and will take 45 years to disappear.
is the beginning of the Cold War.
POINT INTERNATIONAL
A lesson to take into account
By: Carlos Novoa changed history twenty years ago, no doubt. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the end of the Cold War confrontation between two systems that diametrically opposed: capitalism and communism. This event has been a pretext to remember, reflection, interpret, analyze and project the significance of the end of a bipolar world in which the two great powers-the United States and the Soviet Union measured the correlation of forces with a economic and military deployment in various corners of the world.
On this occasion, Trade Zone World dedicated this supplement to the analysis of the context in which events occurred.
has consulted not only witnesses or experts in the field, but held a roundtable with the participation of ambassadors from the countries involved in the earlier and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany is now a unified country. Twenty years later the debate continues and reunification is no longer pending tasks that the Germans themselves grappling from different perspectives.
The world is now a sort of gathering for reflection, perhaps on the couch in the international context, to recall events in Berlin two decades ago.
The threat of war between nations from totalitarian positions may be vanished twenty years ago. But the world is not a safe place today.
The enemies of peace show with other costumes, wrapped in blankets ethnic or falsely religious.
Some international analysts believe that the so-called clash of civilizations "proposed by Samuel Huntington from his professorship at Harvard University, is a myth, because there is a clash of power and nothing else.
That's why we can not turn our backs on the lessons that we left those fateful years of totalitarian ideologies.
One of the major players which meant the fall of communism was Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union. With the introduction of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (transparency) were the first guidelines of what would be the biggest change in the world order.
precisely, referring to the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev reflects on the present. "Unfortunately, over the last two decades the world has not become a better place: the gap between poverty and wealth even increased, not only in developing countries but also within nations themselves developed. "
Undoubtedly, a summary that puts the finger on it without any equivocation.
THE WORLD AFTER THE WALL
From the Cold War to preventive war German reunification came hand in hand with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of communist regimes, leaving U.S. as the sole world power By: Roger Zuzunaga Ruiz
Journalist The fall of the Berlin Wall not only ended with the division of Germany, also wiped out the then moribund Soviet Union, and strengthened U.S. in the international arena. The post-war bipolar world gave way to a unipolar world where one country emerged as the watchdog of freedom and democracy. But on balance, the new stage was not synonymous with peace time, as many expected. With a weakened Soviet Union, which finally disappears in 1991 to make way for the Russian Federation, the fate of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe was sealed and one by one dropped.
The process of disintegration of the Soviet Union, germinated in 1985 following the reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, became a reality as of February 9, 1991, when Lithuania opted for independence in a referendum. Two months later, on March 3, citizens of Latvia and Estonia voted for self-determination. On 9 April the same year, Georgia became independent. On December 8, 1991 created the Community of Independent States, formed by the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan as well as associated states.
As the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, they followed the same process. Poland held its first free elections on May 27, 1990, thanks to the decisive role played by the Solidarity trade union led by Lech Walesa. Hungary did so on March 25 of that year, like Romania, May 20, 1990. Bulgaria, which saw him fall to the dictator Todor Zhivkov on 10 November 1989 after remaining in power for 35 years, held free elections on June 10, 1990. Meanwhile, Albania did the March 31, 1991.
Another consequence was the division of Czechoslovakia. On 17 November 1989, there was the so-called Velvet Revolution. That day, the communist regime harshly suppressed a student demonstration. This caused protests multiply. Finally, on November 24, 1989 fall of the regime and the June 8, 1990 took out the first free elections. Two years later, on June 20, 1992, Czechoslovakia split into two states: the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. Another country
which was dismembered Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence. Bosnia-Herzegovina did so on April 6, 1992. On 27 April the same year, Serbia and Montenegro formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. But the June 3, 2006, both Serbia and Montenegro were declared independent states.
In parallel, a series of wars related to political, economic, ethnic and even religious bled Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Today the crimes that were committed in these conflicts, in addition to the Rwandan genocide and the massacres in East Timor are tried in international courts, a sign that human rights were progress.
The doctrine of preventive war came in the U.S. after the attacks of September 11, 2001. This country invaded Afghanistan and Iraq that year in 2003, arguing that a terrorist attack into its territory was imminent.
Eight years since the invasion of Afghanistan, far from leaving the country, USA is sending more troops. In Iraq, six years after its invasion, so far not found weapons of mass destruction that President George W. Bush said he had. Twenty years after the fall of the wall, only in Eurasia have been born 25 new states and several countries of the former Warsaw Pact are now part of NATO.
Wall Street Roulette
addition to the U.S. position as the world's largest military power, the fall of the Berlin Wall strengthened for many years, the image of this country as a symbol of economic progress. Until the financial crisis came.
For years, Wall Street turned a blind eye to the noise problem that would engender its innovative financial products that generate profits in abundance. But enough with the collapse in the middle of 2008, the largest mortgage banks to be aware of reality: U.S. was in recession since 2007 (which does not go far). Union Europe also fell into recession and the 20 major world powers are seeking to impose further controls the global financial system.
With the force of fear
By: Jorge Moreno Matos Journalist In the months and years following the friction between old allies will become increasingly strained. The growing distrust of the Western allies with the former Soviet Union, will be main stage to Germany and its capital.
In 1948, the Soviets expressed their intention to bring Berlin to East Germany. Western governments are opposed and Berlin is divided into two: one Communist and one Democratic.
In response, the Soviets, eager to expel Westerners once Berlin, hatched the plan to submit their inhabitants by famine, forcing the former to leave the city. Close all access to control and isolate the city altogether. The allies responded with an air bridge hold for a year, a rate of one plane landing every two minutes in the Berlin airports to victual the city martyr. Then, on May 23, 1949, based on Western-controlled sectors, was founded Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), with Bonn as its capital. The answer is the creation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on 7 October the same year on the territory under Soviet control and with Berlin as its capital. The entry of the FRG into NATO in May 1955, Moscow responded with the creation of the Warsaw Pact. Meanwhile, thousands of Germans who during those years left the GDR to the freedom. It is estimated that by 1956 a million have abandoned the socialist paradise. And in 1961, year of construction of the wall, the figure will be nearly 3 million. A drain of manpower that communism can not afford.
WALL OF SHAME
A severe border controls and the movement of Berlin from one side to another are added the barbed wire. The East German government tightened the siege.
In March 1961, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the GDR, Khrushchev proposes to build a wall that crosses the city, but rejected it. Ulbricht has enough qualms to declare in June told reporters: "Nobody intends to erect a wall. "
the morning of August 13, 1961 will begin construction before the astonished Berliners hope that Western governments do something. Just in case, Khrushchev ordered that the wall be built in stages, first with barbed wire and then concrete. But the West does nothing, does not react.
During the next 28 years, 239 East Germans lost their lives trying to circumvent the 600 border guards, the 300 watchtowers and barbed wire electrified the 155 kilometers long and three meters of wall height.
Called "antifascist protective measure" or "wall of shame, "became the most significant symbol of the Cold War.
THE END OF THE EUROPE OF YALTA
The coming to power in the Soviet Union in March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev and his perestroika (restructuring) is the beginning of the end. Gorbachev knows that the economic crisis facing the country makes it impossible to continue supporting the powerful fiction. Driving reforms cause the demise of the USSR.
In early 1989, the countries behind the Iron Curtain began to ignore Moscow's tutelage. In Germany the demands of change and reform are many. Each week, from early this year, he received numerous demonstrations.
protests in Leipzig are multitudinous, but the Government refuses to listen. To satisfy them, Erich Honecker, head of state, is ousted on Oct. 18 and replaced by Egon Krenz. Egon Krenz is the same who was quick to congratulate the Chinese leadership for Tiananmen massacre and to propose a solution "to China" when they started the initial demonstrations in German cities. "The Soviet army will not act against the people," replied Moscow, concerned as it is in their own problems. The RDA is already mortally wounded.
On 2 May, the Government Hungarian removed the barbed wire that marks its border with Austria. So take advantage of thousands of East Germans to go on "vacation" to Hungary. Despite threats from the GDR, Hungary September 10 opens its border with Austria. Over the next few days, 15 thousand East Germans cross the border. At the end of the month, four thousand will do it for Czechoslovakia.
November 4, a demonstration of half a million people in the heart of East Berlin requires changes. And these are given hastily, but in the sense that no one foresaw, that no one saw coming.
Krenz regime tries its own perestroika and proposes measures to provide passports and visas to the West. On the morning of November 9 approved the free movement between the two Germanies, as it is announced in the afternoon at a news conference broadcast on radio and television. "The private travel abroad can be authorized without compliance requirements," government spokesman announced, Günter Schabowski.
"Since when?" Asked an Italian journalist.
"immediately," he replies.
In the next few hours, hundreds of East Germans will be congregating in the seven border points of the wall. The guards, who had not been told about it, do not know what to do. As time passes, there are now thousands of surrounding wall. At 11:30 pm, the last step is to open at the point of Bornholmerstrasse. The wall is now only a bad memory.
Europe that had emerged in Yalta has come to an end.
That day we were all Berliners.
The day ended the twentieth century
the night of November 9 and in the following days, thousands of Berliners on both sides began, with chisels and hammers in hand, to take a piece of history home .
English journalist JM Martí Font, who was in Berlin those days that stopped an East German who was heading the other side and asked that the wall would do if they closed again. And the answer was: "This is not never closes again. This is over. "
No one suspected that the wall would fall so loud and fast. A year later, the two Germanys were reunited. Czech President Vaclav Havel summed up as one the feeling of those days in one sentence: "We did not even have time to wonder."
Martí Font wrote that the day ended the twentieth century.
GETS COLD WAR HOT
On October 22, 1961 was one of the most tense days in the history of the Berlin Wall. In a show of force, Soviet tanks were stationed at the border checkpoint known as Checkpoint Charlie. In response, U.S. tanks were located in front of them, on the other side of the wall, less than 80 meters away and the live ammunition. The tension lasted 17 hours.
VIEW
The Berlin Wall fell on the mediums 
By: Farid
Kahhat 
By: Farid
Internationalist Imagine you travel in time to January 1989, and get together the most renowned academic relations international to hear the following prediction: in November of this year, the Berlin Wall fall. Not content with that, decided to add the following omens: the fall of the wall will begin a process that, in little over a year, will lead to the reunification of Germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the demise of communism in Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. How do you think there would have reacted the pads together with such predictions? The most likely had refused to dignify this string of nonsense with a response. And yet, as we know, all this happened no one could foresee. allegedly immutable essence of communist totalitarianism was precisely the argument that Jeane Kirkpatrick appealed to justify support for authoritarian regimes during the Reagan administration, unlike those, the latter usually bear traces of an autonomous civil society, and allowed the creation an economic power independent of the state. Totalitarianism, however, following the definition of Hannah Arendt, was based on social atomization: the mechanisms of state control is so hair extended by all of society, preventing its members any level of independent organization. But authoritarian regimes were only liable to an evolutionary transformation, also tended to be conservative: pressure to force a democratic transition could cause social unrest that had the unintended effect its transformation into a totalitarian regime. Thus not just disappear any chance of ever becoming democracies, but also U.S. lost an ally in the containment of communism. It was only sensible, therefore, wait for the modernization process to fruition, and that these societies democratize at its own pace.
All this ignoring events as the Hungarian revolt of 1956 or the Prague Spring in 1968, as discovered in the 90's the literature on democratic transitions, also under communist regimes could cause cracks in the halls of power, which in turn opened unpublished loopholes for self-organization of society. In fact, dissidents within the ruling elite promoting such organizations to seek their support against political rivals.
Just as no one could have foreseen in early 1989, the radical change of era that was about to be launched in Europe, also had greater luck who wanted their consequences. For example, when Bill Clinton was running for U.S. president summed up his balance staff in recent history in the following sentence: "The Cold War has ended, and Japan won." That was the case presumably because, unlike the United States and the Soviet Union, that country had not squandered their resources in a runaway arms race. Months later, which prey on a gypsy curse, Japan fell into a recession that would last throughout the nineties, and is now on the verge of being displaced by China as the world's second largest economy.
(*) PROFESSOR OF PUCP
ROUNDTABLE ON THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN
"It was the day of freedom in the face"
Why was it so important in world history? After the Second World War is the most significant date of change of a historical era in the twentieth century.
"On November 9, marked a fundamental change in a world that was already globalized, in matters of ideology, on how to address the issue of nuclear weapons, military alliances, economic, political," said U.S. ambassador. UU., Michael McKinley, by emphasizing the universal relevance of this fact at the beginning of the round table.
Mikhail Troyansky, Russia's ambassador, agreed with his U.S. counterpart, its former Cold War rival: "He marked the fall of dictatorships, one-party system, lack of freedom ... As our President Putin: the German people were held hostage to the struggle between two superpowers of the Cold War between two opposing worlds. Thank God those days are over. " was a vital event that we are still experiencing positive transformations and in some cases negative, pulling down the Iron Curtain.
ANOTHER WORLD ORDER
Fabián Novak, director of the Institute of International Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), highlighted its main consequence in world history: "It caused the fall of communism, with its cutting civil liberties and violation of fundamental rights. " It also caused the emergence of a new international order with the U.S. "As the only political and military leader" and not only led to German reunification, and its subsequent evolution as the leading power of the Old Continent, but the unification of Europe itself. Farid
The Ka-hhat internationalist, PUCP professor, said it was a humbling experience for those who believe they have discovered the course of history (Marxists and liberals "who did not do so now with the economic crisis.") "The fall of the wall was a major anomaly, no one could foresee that happening and causing at least a year and half the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union itself." And until Communism disappeared in countries that were not part of the axis of Moscow: Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania: "There was a contagion effect."
What were the causes that brought it critical?
"No was a fluke. It was part of a process, "states the Polish Ambassador Przemyslaw Marzec. Before there were attempts to oppose the hegemonic Soviet dictatorship, and in 1958 in Hungary, in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, "but the only peaceful uprising itself could give was in Poland in 1979 remember that John Paul II said in the square in Warsaw: "Fear not" They the famous strikes of Lech Walesa. The fall was inevitable, the system could not cope. Thus, 1989 was the year people remember that before 9 November, 4 June we had already semi-democratic elections. "
Apostolic Nuncio Bruno emphasized Musaró the importance of the pontificate of John Paul II since his election in 1978, in the fall of the Eastern bloc. His speeches and his travels in 1979 and 1983 in Poland were decisive "in the birth of Solidarity, a labor union-inspired ethics in the Catholic religion John Paul II knew that communism would collapse, but did not expect so fast ".
THE ROLE OF GORBACHEV
German Ambassador, Christoph Müller, also noted that "it was an isolated incident but part of a larger adventure, the culmination of Solidarity in Poland and perestroika and Gorbachev's glasnost. " This adventure was part of a global tragedy that was experienced at the end with joy, according to Müller. U.S. Ambassador Mikhail Gorbachev stressed: "Without a change in leadership in the USSR, such a move was unthinkable."
Musaró Nuncio Bruno recalled then that the December 1, 1989 was the meeting between Gorbachev and the Pope at the Vatican.
What are the consequences we live and where will the world now?
American Michael McKinley recalled that the change was in the whole world, "also in Latin America. For example, there was the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Africa and Asia took the change [liberal] in their economies Economic changes in the 80's helped to political changes and there is no debate between systems, but by the balance between the state and the private sector in how it benefits the greatest number of the population, with emphasis on democracy " .
For German Christoph Müller, the Berlin Wall showed that "a country can not govern against the will of the people, that human rights are part of the human condition, that press freedom can not long term although it alone does not guarantee stability, but requires responsibility, institutions. And it showed the failure of the economic model of state socialism to assume a social market economy that produces better results. " NEGATIVE EFFECTS
Poland's Przemyslaw Marzec reflected: "When the Cold War, the world became much better, but new challenges appeared: it was more unipolar and phenomena appeared as failed states and, especially, the conflict Balkans: Who would think that a war could have serious dimensions in the heart of Europe? ".
The Russian Mikhail Troyansky also shows a critical view, since the fall of the wall had painful impact: "There was a breakdown of my country, loss of independence in foreign policy and domestic politics ruin. Wine capitalism and thought it was the oven of abundance, that everything would fall from the sky. But did despair, under inept leadership and anarchic a decade. My country suffered a reduction of 17% of territory, and we have a huge nuclear arsenal, 95% with U.S., which is a difficult issue. But the corrections began with a new address, Putin and Medvedev. The country needed young and energetic. And if we knelt before we got up. "
dangers of nationalism
analyst Farid Kahhat not see the desirability of returning to a multipolar world, as experienced in the first half of the twentieth century, the era of colonization and the First and Second World War. "The alternative is not multipolarity, but multilateralism, international law restricts the actions of the states, not the strongest prevails, but who is right." The other way is dangerous which proposes ethnic and cultural nationalism, another unpleasant phenomenon after the fall of the wall.
Fabián Novak For the analyst, after U.S. became the only world leader politico-military, "the big question is: how can exercise that power: with respect international law or unilateralism?. " Novak remembers the pre-emptive policy of George W. Bush, who was not permitted by international law. He also argues that international policies of that country were placed on a pendulum with Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and Bush. "But now Obama offers hope."
About Germany: "The reunion was a complicated and expensive, it was a country of 60 million people who get to 17 million. Are still present problems of employment and equality between east and west. But Germany has risen from the worst calamities. " Neither Africa
escaped the consequences: "So 1989, thanks to the two powers, kept some order and stability, although single-party governments. After the fall of the USSR, USA lose interest, and trigger crisis in Rwanda, Sudan, Congo, Ivory Coast. " And in the field of international agencies give "a greater role for the UN, has more interventions, more than 25 countries with peacekeeping operations."
Novak believes that the world might turn up pole: "It's China, it is estimated that in two years will be the second largest world economy, displacing Japan. There is talk of India and even of "Chindia." Asia will replace Europe as a gravity of power. And be consolidated regional powers: Brazil, Germany, South Africa. "
substantial dialogue of ideas
The roundtable on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall took place on Tuesday, November 3 at the premises of the newspaper El Comercio. Participants included the U.S. ambassador, Michael McKinley, of Russia, Mikhail Troyansky, from Poland, Przemyslaw Marzec, Germany, Christoph Müller, the apostolic nuncio in Peru, Bruno Musaró, as well as international analysts and Farid Kahhat Fabián Novak.
The table was moderated by the director of this newspaper, Francisco Miro Quesada Rada, the main editor of Politics, Juan Paredes Castro, and the editor of the World section, Carlos Novoa. Journalists also attended the World section: Miguel Angel Cardenas, Jorge Moreno and Roger Zuzunaga.
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