Obama and the new Latin America
By Pepe Escobar
SAO PAULO - Even before its Lincolnesque inauguration, the Barack Obama
presidency and Latin America already seem to be on a collision course.
This Tuesday, in a groundbreaking, wide-ranging, 33-country Latin American and
Caribbean summit coordinated by the Brazilian government, Raul Castro - in his
first trip abroad since taking over from Fidel in 2006 - saw Cuba accepted as
the 23rd member of the Group of Rio political forum, a body created in 1986 to
promote Latin American cooperation.
All the leaders at the summit said in unison, "This is a historic moment." Then the forum immediately condemned and demanded the end of the US
embargo against Cuba in effect since February 1962.
So it's not an accident that on the same day, President George W Bush's Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, a fierce anti-Castro Cuban-American, declared the US would not lift the embargo. The leaders gathered at the summit took it for what it is: not only as a "message" to Latin America but as a torpedo launched towards the Obama submarine. But one thing is certain: "The wall has been pierced," as Argentinian daily Pagina 12 headlined it. The US strategy towards Latin America has completely failed - and Obama will have to pick up the pieces...
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