Has the United States ceded ground in Latin America to opponents of freedom and liberal democracy? This editorial from Colombia’s El Mundo laments the fact that President Obama failed to even mention South America in his State of the Union speech, and that with Washington showing little or no interest in what was once called its ‘backyard,’ leaders opposed to U.S. influence are filling the void, and damaging rather than contributing to Latin American integration.
Expressing views that seem to have fallen out of favor in recent tears, Colombia’s El Mundo says in part:
The State of the Union address, delivered by President Obama last week, 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 – two days 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.
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 is 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.
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.
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