Panama’s president just ended a visit to Cuba, and soon there will be visits by the presidents of Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile.
EFE reports separately on Cuban dissidents’ requests for meetings with the visiting heads of state, and on a statement by the spokesman for President Bachelet in Chile: “There doesn’t exist in any part of Chilean foreign policy a requirement that to go to a country one must meet the opposition.”
Meanwhile, former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda has looked at recent diplomatic activity and wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month, “Never before has Havana harvested diplomatic successes of the sort it has enjoyed in the last few months.” He noted that the “Castro brothers have convinced almost every Latin American government that the main item on the region's agenda with Barack Obama is the suppression of the U.S. embargo with the island.” That’s fair enough; the recent statements from the Brazil summit and Caricom probably came with a Cuban nudge. But Castaneda’s concluding idea that the United States could negotiate “political, if not regime, change with the Latin Americans, in exchange for normalizing economic ties,” doesn’t seem to be based on the Latin America that exists today.
7 comments:
that's why the U.S. will never take Latin America seriously -- they waste all their time trying to keep alive a discredited, retrograde Stalinist regime at the expense of serious discussions on trade, immigration, or any other of a dozen more important topics.
The open (almost flaunting of) solidarity with Cuba shown at the Rio Group Summit was something to behold. When Raul mentioned Fidel's name in the presence of all the other Heads of State, they all erupted in cheer.
Cuba should feel proud of the goodwill in the region but also realize is not all about them. Cuba is a symbol of a certain type of bi-partisan US chauvanism/imperialism that has characterized relations for too long. Making nice in Cuba, would mean a lot for all the countries who, at one time or another, were negatively compared to Cuba by US elites. It would mean the US was looking to improve things for everyone, not play favorites, ala the Cold War.
Of course, hardline elements in the Cuban-American community desperately need the US to play favorites so that Cuba is once again isolated.
Latin American "solidarity" and a buck will get Cuba a cup of coffee...
Actually, it may end up being the thing that gets the embargo dropped....
granted I hate the embargo but obviously for different reasons than leftside. judging from his post its so that the people of Cuba can still be ruled by the Castro clique. The cheers the adulation all that love for Fidel must have made him all mushy inside. What an idiot.
I want the Cuban people to be ruled by who they want, not what people in the US want. In the election last year, Fidel and Raul were elected to represent their constituencies with the highest percentage of votes of anyone else in the country.
"In the election last year, Fidel and Raul were lected to represent their constituiencies with highest percentages of votes of anyone else in the country"
Boy I could not stop laughing when I read this sentence by Leftside. This guy must have a big turd stuck in his brain and is unable to flush it out. Que clase de comemierda!
Post a Comment