'Philo-Marxist' cold warriors: President Manuel Noriega, in town for the

CELAC Summit and having just altered Nicaragua's constitution so as to

stay in power ad infinitum, and Fidel Castro, aging former Cuba dictator,

embrace in Havana.

 

 

Obama 'Deals Blow' to Dream of Latin American Integration (El Mundo, Colombia)

 

"The omission of Latin America from the State of the Union is a setback for our efforts to integrate, and is a vacuum that others will certainly want to take advantage of. We can see this already. ... At the CELAC summit, in a totalitarian-infused atmosphere, philo-marxist leaders, as well as those grateful to Castroism, in addition to those who couldn't give battle because they feared defeat, a document was approved declaring America “a zone of peace at the southern border of an empire that was born and grew strong thanks to war, the looting of other nations' resources, and territorial expansion."

 

EDITORIAL

 

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

 

February 9, 2014

 

Colombia - El Mundo - Original Article (Spanish)

Fiddling while freedom dies?: U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gets a haircut in Old Havana during the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Jan. 27.

 

TELESUR TV, VENEZUELA [STATE-RUN]: CELAC moves from words to action on Puerto Rico, Jan. 30, 00:00:58RealVideo

The State of the Union address, delivered by President Obama Jan. 28, and the closing declaration of the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States [CELAC], which was approved by 33 heads of state and government who were gathered in Havana, happened almost simultaneously - a day earlier. Both, perhaps unintentionally on President Obama’s part, are quite a blow to the dream of American unity outlined by its peoples and leaders since our countries won independence from the European empires.

 

The first summit declaration and plan of action of the Organization of American States [O.A.S.] were endorsed 20 years ago by 34 democratically-elected heads of state and government, when Dr. César Gaviria was secretary general. At that summit, leaders recognized that the Americas had achieved the dream of the organization’s 1948 founding charter, having consolidated formal democracy and its values: respect for human rights and the maintenance of civil rights and economic liberty. Consequently, they recognized that they could work together to “consolidate and promote closer cooperation to transform our aspirations (for social equality and economic prosperity) into reality.” They were convinced that the defeat of extreme right-wing dictatorships and the collapse of the Soviet Union, exporter of communism, were so definitive that a transformation of the Cuban dictatorship could soon be expected.

 

Even if the integration of Latin America is not guaranteed by U.S. government interests, U.S. influence is well known. This was demonstrated by the convergence achieved during the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton, who didn't forsake an imperial tone on the theme of drugs, and the Republican periods of Bush senior and junior, as well as Ronald Reagan. All offered their support to continental summits, which until 2000 lent strong momentum to economic integration, and since then, to cultural integration. In the first decade of the 21st century, the U.S. government, particularly under Republicans, favored bilateral economic cooperation, preferably through free trade agreements, and put great emphasis on battling terrorism and its principal ally, drug trafficking.

 

Like Worldmeets.US on Facebook

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:  
Opera Mundi, Brazil: Washington Be Damned, CELAC Makes Real 'Our America'
Guardian, U.K.: Raul Castro Tells CELAC Summit: Fight Poverty; Lock Out United States
La Razon, Bolivia: CELAC Condemns U.S. Blockade of Cuba; Elects Raul Castro
El Espectador, Colombia: Not All CELAC Nations Agree with Anti-Imperialist Chavez  

El Universal, Venezuela: Hugo Chavez Declares Monroe Doctrine Dead  

El Tiempo, Colombia: What Good is Our New, U.S.-Free 'Community'?  

Estadao, Brazil: In Latin America, Rhetoric Triumphs Over Reality  

La Razon, Bolivia: Latin America Has Excluded the U.S. … So What Now?

ABC, Spain: Hugo Chavez Calls Terrorism Indictment a U.S.-Spanish Plot  

Folha, Brazil: Latin American Unity Cannot Be Dependent on Excluding the U.S.  

La Jornada, Mexico: Latin America's March Toward 'Autonomy from Imperial Center'

La Jornada, Mexico: Militarization of Latin America: Obama 'Ahead of Bush'

O Globo, Brazil: U.S. Navy Shows That What U.S. Can Do, Brazil Can Also Do  

Clarin, Argentina: Resurrected U.S. Fourth Fleet Creates Suspicion Across South America

Le Figaro, France: U.S. Navy 'Resurrects' Fourth Fleet to Patrol Latin America

Semana, Colombia: Hugo Chávez Isn't 'Paranoid' to Fear the U.S. Marines

 

With the U.S. undertaking a shift toward more democratic governance, and therefore more focused on U.S. domestic problems, President Obama never mentioned Latin America or U.S. drug trafficking policies in his speech. On subjects that relate to our continent, his reflections focused on the al-Qaeda terrorist threat, and mention of immigration reform barely merited a paragraph. Since the State of the Union is a speech that presents the goals to which the president of that country will dedicate most of his efforts, the omission of Latin America is a setback for our efforts to integrate, and creates a vacuum that others will certainly want to take advantage of. We can see this already, with the strengthening of alternative institutions [reference to CELAC and other left-leaning organizations that exclude the United States, such as the Union of South American Nations].

 

So politicians who came to the fore bitterly fighting liberal democracy and its global bastion the United States, took advantage of that estrangement. They used the CELAC summit in Havana as a sword to puncture the dream of American unity and as an incubator for open dictatorship like the one in Cuba, or states disguised as electoral democracies like Venezuela and Nicaragua. The entire farce was given a hand by the secretary general of the United Nations, who barely muttered a lukewarm call for Cuba to respect the political rights of its opposition - which is subjected to exile, derision, silencing, or imprisonment; and from the head of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, who during the opening session endured without complaint harsh criticisms against the organization he represents and the dream of a unified continent that it defends.

 

A dour-looking Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of what remains the

preeminent hemisphere-wide organization, the U.S.-based Organization of

American States, endures harsh criticism of the O.A.S. at the Community of

Latin American and Caribbean States' opening ceremony, Havana, Jan. 28.

 

This pulling of Uncle Sam’s beard by leaders of 33 American countries wasn't limited to their participation as backup vocalists at a summit called by the tyranny that had turned Cuba into Soviet Union-backed exporter of guerrilla fighters, weapons and revolution, and is still imposing an authoritarian rule over the country. In a totalitarian-infused atmosphere, philo-marxist leaders, as well as those grateful to Castroism, in addition to those who couldn't give battle because they feared defeat, a document was approved declaring America “a zone of peace at the southern border of an empire that was born and grew strong thanks to war, the looting of other nations' resources, and territorial expansion.” To add insult to injury, the declaration “condemns the genocidal U.S. blockade of Cuba, reiterates support for Argentina in its claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas [Falkland Islands], and recognizes the Latin American and Caribbean nature of Puerto Rico.” These words are like swords threatening the dream of a continent united in democracy and the common good.

 

CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION

 

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted By Worldmeets.US Feb. 9, 2014, 1:49am