Continuing with our coverage of an issue almost completely absent from what has come to be known as the mainstream media, we posted two articles today that touch upon the hemisphere’s newest alliance, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which is meant to be a U.S.-free answer to the Organization of American States.
The first article, a news item from Spain’s ABC newspaper headlined, Hugo Chavez Calls Terrorism Indictment a U.S.-Spanish Plot, has the Venezuelan president attributing a recent terrorism indictment against him by Spain’s high court to plans by “the new empire (U.S.) and the old empire (Spain)” to scuttle the new Latin American alliance.
ABC quotes Chavez as saying in part:
“This is not to the liking of the new empire (U.S.) or the old empire (Spain). They are very distressed with what was born at the summit, what was born precisely here, in Caracas. … While Venezuela is recognized by the world, we have seen unleashed an orchestrated offensive. All of this has been orchestrated due to the tremendous success of Venezuela and our governments in Cancun. … The empire quickly began its attack through the OAS, the National Audience of Spain, and from the U.S. government, in the person of its Secretary of State. In short, this is a major offensive against us.”
On the other end of the Latin American ideological spectrum is this editorial from Brazil’s Estadao, which questions the entire basis of the new alliance:
Mexican President Felipe Calderón: “The ideal of Bolívar, a united America, still lives … it is more alive than ever”; Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: “We can say that the dream of Simon Bolívar has come true”; Cuban President Raúl Castro: “Historically transcendent”; Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: “A historic fact of great significance.” Even by good neighborly standards, there is a heartbreaking contrast between the rhetoric pouring out to welcome the creation of a new multilateral entity in the region, and its more than obvious limitations for integrating, “one and only one American nation, united in its values of democracy, justice and equality,” as recited by Calderón. … The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States reflects the disorientation of the region’s governments in relation to its problematic environment and its lack of foreign policy direction, locked as it is into the illusion that snubbing the United States will do for Latin American integration what 200 years of history failed to do.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
