OBAMA AND
CHAVEZ: 'RAPPROCHEMENT'
[Excelsior,
Mexico]
El Mundo,
Colombia
Obama: A Man Who
Takes His Promises Seriously
"By trying new methods for solving old problems, Obama wishes to fulfill his promises and get the pendulum of history to swing. ... He permits us a glimmer of hope that a new stage of collaboration is dawning with a region that will be his partner in global affairs."
By Eugenio Prieto
Translated By Paula van de
Werken
April 19, 2009
Colombia
- El Mundo - Original Article (Spanish)
Only personal consistency allows men like U.S. President
Barack Obama to carry out their political commitments.
Among others, the actions he took to confront the current
global crisis and the decision he made to allow Cuban-Americans to move forward
in their relations with those who remain on the island are good examples. "This
isn't charity," Obama said at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, now taking
place in Trinidad and Tobago, perhaps referring to the reaction of Raul Castro,
who said, "Cuba doesn’t need alms."
The way Obama has placed a priority on human rights and
relations with Cuba are demonstrations that the actions of his government can
and will be fully consistent with the proposals he made as a candidate. In other
words, as a candidate, he offered what was possible, thus going against the tradition
of false promises. And he committed himself to being respectful of the
confidence placed in him by the people, for whom he would exert himself to the
utmost. This implies a profound break from tradition, which was maintained by
the force of inertia and the habits of bureaucrats.
These actions of President Obama were
preceded by another landmark decision: the closing of the Guantanamo prison, a
structure that by keeping terrorism suspects prisoner without providing the
accused with fair and speedy trials, offended the democratic principles of
respect for freedom and human dignity. Therefore, Obama's gesture has enormous
value, as does his call to the Cuban regime to do likewise in order to knit together
a new bilateral relationship: "…we should loosen up restrictions on travel
and remittances. We have now acted on that … But Cuba has to take some steps,
send some signals … when it comes to human rights, when it comes to political
rights," he said Wednesday [April 15] to Colombian journalist Juan Carlos
Lopez, who interviewed
the president for CNN Espanol.
These positions, taken before his first trip to Latin
America for the Fifth Summit of the Americas - a summit that since its first
meeting has vetoed the subject of Cuba - show how far President Obama is ready
to go, in order to carry out his campaign promises. As he does when he says, "we
cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements." Again - by trying
new methods for solving old problems, he
wishes to fulfill his promises and get the pendulum of history to swing. That opposing parties haven’t always
acted as expected hasn't been a bar to this innovative leader, who can build
bridges and effectively call on others in the region, and who can overcome
custom and tradition so that new and increasingly democratic practices can be
established.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
'SUMMIT OF
THE AMERICAS'
[El Tiempo, Colombia]
Almost certain that his words wouldn't be heard from his
award-winning blog Generation Y,
philologist Yoani Sanchez wrote what
many Cubans, disenchanted with communism but hopeful for their island, want of Raul
Castro: "The ball that we would like you to get rolling is to expand space
for citizen initiatives, allow free association, and - in a gesture that would
encapsulate your political uprightness - put your position up for genuinely
popular election."
We hope that the Castro brothers are open enough to understand
the meaning of this transformational change; and that they're prepared to build
a new model for relations based on neither totalitarianisms nor fundamentalisms
and which is an outgrowth of the democratic opening demanded by a new
generation of Cubans and is so hoped-for by the world. Will Cuba be capable, within
a framework of respect for human rights and freedom of expression, of advancing
toward a democracy that breaks the ideological polarization that for over fifty
years has kept it in a vicious cycle in its relations with the United States?
We don’t know the answer. But in any case, there is a glimmer of hope that Obama
has taken up one of the great challenges of his administration - the beginning
of the end of the economic embargo against Cuba.
Today in the Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago, the Fifth
Summit of the Americas will culminate with a call for continent-wide cooperation
which for the first time, brings President Obama together with Latin American counterparts.
By its development, we have confidence in the revitalization
of the institution as a setting for negotiating a regional framework in which
political and economic cooperation useful to the countries of the continent can
be realized.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Cuban
dictator Raul Castro has responded to U.S. overtures
by saying Cuba is willing to discuss
anything and everything
with the U.S. - as long as talks come
'without precondition'
in a spirit of equality.
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I don’t think that a reconditioning of relations will change
Washington's position of power in regard to Latin America. But I believe that
the attitude of President Obama, his acceptance of responsibility for drug
consumption and weapons trafficking, his proposal to reconsider U.S. anti-drug
policies for Latin America and offer an alliance of equals, permits us a
ray of hope that a new stage of collaboration is dawning with a region that
will be his partner in global affairs. But only if it can
comprehend how to knit together a community respectful of diversity and open to
constant dialog. This is a perspective embodied by him and practiced by
a new generation of political leaders and children of hope, demonstrated by a desire
for negotiation and a recognition of the plurality of
the world.
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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 21, 6:09am]
