WASHINGTON’S CROSS HAIRS AS HE’S A DEMOCRAT AND HE’S
BARACK OBAMA … AS FOR BUSH, FOR EIGHT YEARS WE HAD ‘WELCOMING MATERIAL’ WAITING FOR HIM … BUT NOW WE HAVE TO THROW IT IN THE TRASH.’
Barack Obama has just completed the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Mexico City in decades. And while he made a good impression, this editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada suggests that Mexicans still need some persuading that things really have ‘changed’ – and that their own government is capable of living up to any bargains it may make with the United States.
The La Jornada editorial says in part:
“It’s clear that in Washington there’s a new tone of multilateralism, and in regard to respect – if not humility – there is at least a moderation of the traditional imperial arrogance that has characterized the language of the White House in regard to the continent to its south … but it’s clear that the changes promised by Obama are largely still pending; that the foreign policy of the United States is almost as neocolonial, predatory and unilateral as it has always been; and that the democratic transition Mexico has attempted has taken the form, for the most part, of a recomposition of the old political system that, despite dates and appearances, remains faithful to the worst corporate practices and is as undemocratic and corrupt as ever.”
EDITORIAL
Translated By Miguel Gutierrez
April 17, 2009
Mexico – La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
The visit to our country by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, permitted us to consider the actual state of bilateral relations between Mexico and our neighbor to the north – as well as the potential and inexorable limits to plans for a renewal of relations.In the first place, it’s clear that the recent turnover of presidents in Washington has injected new attitudes, not just into its policy agenda toward Mexico, but into our neighbor’s other fields of endeavor. In the area of cooperation with our country and the rest of Latin America, there is a new tone of multilateralism, and in regard to respect – if not humility – there is at least a moderation of the traditional imperial arrogance that has characterized the speech of the White House in regard to the continent to its south.
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