Just Hours Away From SALVATION and SANITY !!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
What do you think Obama's policy will be with Latin America? Do you think he will reinstate trade with Cuba? Where will Argentina fall on his agenda?
 
criswkh said:
What do you think Obama's policy will be with Latin America? Do you think he will reinstate trade with Cuba? Where will Argentina fall on his agenda?
Click to expand...

I prefer to refer to the US ruling junta -- which some people refer to as the "deep state." This junta remains the same regardless of the elected figureheads. The junta's policy is to bring countries like Bolivia and Venezuela to heel: they've been a bit too uppity the last few years. But US involvement in the Middle East is a constant preoccupation. Plus of course the looming collapse of USA, Inc. So Latin America will probably continue to go its own way. And hopefully Russia and China will forge ever closer relations with the region.
 
bigbadwolf said:
And hopefully Russia and China will forge ever closer relations with the region.
Click to expand...

And why is this a good thing? They're no angels.
 
mini said:
And why is this a good thing? They're no angels.
Click to expand...

No, that's true. But then again, no-one's an angel. However if South America can play off one power against another, I figure it's better for the region in that it strengthens its negotiating hand. And unilateral US military dominance of the region becomes more difficult.
 
Russia is already becoming friends with Venezuela, which should help trade relations. China owns part of the Panama Canal, so China sees Latin America has a value resource. I believe they bought some land in Peru for resources. Bush has a ranch in Paraguay and there is a US military base next to it. I just hope there isn't some occupation of forces here for "staging" purposes.
 
bigbadwolf said:
No, that's true. But then again, no-one's an angel. However if South America can play off one power against another, I figure it's better for the region in that it strengthens its negotiating hand. And unilateral US military dominance of the region becomes more difficult.
Click to expand...

"Hopefully" is not a word I would use to describe your ideas. I do not hope for such a scenario. It sounds like you're at a world as it was during the Cold War.
 
mini said:
It sounds like you're at a world as it was during the Cold War.
Click to expand...

One can argue that the Cold War never really ended. USA, Russia, China, and various wannabes are still jostling for influence all over the world. Indeed, the US has been encroaching on Russia's sphere of influence -- in spite of earlier promises to do no such thing. "Hope" has nothing to do with this dispassionate discussion: leave that to the sheep who are swooning over the coronation of O-baa-ma. It's US policymakers who coined the term "full spectrum dominance." Now whatever could this mean? US intentions and actions are not benign.

I just stumbled across this piece in Asia Times. I think it's a riveting read.

asia times said:
All bets are off on how the Obama presidency will adapt to the new Latin American "political-ideological profile", as Lula put it, and that includes, of course, expanded diplomatic, economic and military ties with China, Russia and Iran. That means Russian warships - including a nuclear cruiser - in joint naval exercises with Venezuela, a first since the Cold War; Chinese President Hu Jintao signing a free-trade agreement with Peru; Lula inviting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for a state visit; and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa refusing to renew the lease on the US's Manta base, defended by the Bush administration as a critical platform for the "war on drugs" - an assumption widely ridiculed all over South America.

Chavez has bought $4.4 billion in weapons from Russia after the Bush administration blocked sales of aircraft parts to Venezuela. Brazil and France signed a deal for four nuclear submarines to patrol Brazil's rich Atlantic oil basins. China, and not the US, is now Chile's biggest copper export market; a true New Copper Road, sea lane rather, is now on from the southern Pacific to East Asia.

China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner (after Venezuela), with annual bilateral trade at over US$2.6 billion. China has pledged $10 billion in loans to Brazil's oil giant Petrobras to develop the Western hemisphere's largest oil discovery since 1976. And by 2012, Caracas will be selling 1 million barrels of oil a day to Beijing. No wonder Chinese President Hu Jintao declared at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru that "China and South America have already become extremely good friends and partners".

Julia Sweig, director of the Latin America program at the Council of Foreign Relations, sums it all up, "Monroe certainly would be rolling over in his grave."
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top