'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."
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.
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.
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.
