El Comandante speaks: Castro says US on offensive in LatAm despite Obama

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_fidel_castro


Castro says US on offensive in LatAm despite Obama



.. AP – Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, left, and Bolivia's President Evo Morales point out something to Cuba's … . Play Video Barack Obama Video:Tapper On Obama's 'Fat Cat' Forum ABC News . Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama leans on top U.S. bankers AP . Play Video Barack Obama Video:AP Top Stories AP .By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 13 mins ago
HAVANA – Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama's "friendly smile and African-American face" are hiding Washington's sinister intentions for Latin America — more evidence of a new cooling in U.S.-Cuba relations after a thaw had seemed possible just months ago.

In a letter to Hugo Chavez that the Venezuelan president read at the close of a summit of leftist Latin American nations Monday, Castro said the U.S. "empire is on the offensive again" in the region.

He blamed Washington for a military coup that toppled leftist President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in June and criticized a U.S. agreement with Colombia that allows U.S. troops greater access to seven of that country's military bases.

"They are obviously the real intentions of the empire, this time under the friendly smile and African-American face of Barack Obama," Castro said.

The 83-year-old former Cuban president heaped praise on Obama when he first took office, calling him intelligent, sincere, serene, courageous, honest and well-meaning. He later endorsed Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Castro has turned on Obama, saying in an opinion piece in state media last week that the U.S. president's acceptance of the Nobel prize after deciding to send 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan was "a cynical act."

His letter to Chavez is the latest sign that reconciliation between the U.S. and the communist-governed island isn't likely soon. That had seemed a possibility as recently as the spring, when the White House eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel and send money to this country and Obama spoke of a possible new beginning in relations.

On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said Cuba detained an American citizen Dec. 5 who had been working in Cuba as a subcontractor for a Maryland-based economic development organization.

Cuba's government has not commented, but word of the arrest came after both sides blamed each other for the postponement of meetings scheduled for this month to discuss immigration issues.

In November, the State Department denounced an assault — allegedly by plainclothes Cuban state security agents — on the island's top dissident blogger, Yoani Sanchez. Obama later sent a lengthy message praising Sanchez and answering a series of questions from her.

Prominent American blacks recently denounced racism in Cuba, which is a touchy subject for this nation, and the Cuban military conducted war games against a U.S. invasion, which authorities here still insist is a real possibility.

The idea that Washington is turning up the heat on the leftist governments in Latin America dominated the two-day meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a regional trade group known as ALBA that was founded by Chavez as an alternative to U.S.-backed, free-trade consortiums.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said that if the U.S. threatened Latin America militarily, the region would rise up and create "a second Vietnam." Chavez quipped that Obama was the winner of the "Nobel Prize of War."

The Venezuelan leader also responded to recent comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who warned Latin American governments to "think twice" about building ties with Iran.

"It's ridiculous, the threat of the secretary of state, and we aren't afraid of her," Chavez said

[Braulio]

1. The Chavez Delusion

There's a small group of nations which includes Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, and a few tiny Central American and Caribbean nations, which are following the Chavez line. Their combined population is less than 100 million, that is about half of Brazil's. Their combined economies are also less than half of Brazil's. These radical leftists are driving their economies down, Cuba and Ecuador lead the pack, followed by Venezuela. Bolivia hasn't hit the skids yet, but if Morales continues his "socialist project" it will go down as well.

Most Latin Americans don't agree with the Chavez-Castro-Correa-Morales et al axis (a recent poll shows Chavez is the least liked leader in the Americas). They are isolated, and will become even more isolated as their economies go down in flames.

The keys to Latin American thinking, right now, are Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and to some extent Argentina. The key to leftist progress is the lead provided by the likes of Lula and Bachelet - pragmatic pro-market left leaning policies, rather than the radical state control and self-perpetuating unitary leadership (without balances) the likes of Castro and Chavez want.

While US policy vis a vis Iran is wrong headed, and it's driven by the Israel Lobby (which drives a lot of US foreign policy when it comes to the Middle East), it's non sense for these Latin American leaders to align themselves with the corrupt Iranian regime, whose president is on very weak legs, opposed by his own people, and in power thanks to rigged elections. It's downright stupid for a self-styled democratic leftist leader to seek alliances with leaders of ill-managed and repressive regimes such as the ones in Iran, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Cuba. All it accomplishes is to weaken the cause of progressives around the world. By aligning themselves with the likes of Iran, the Chavez group is giving the US empire the ability to block them, isolate them, and turn them into pariah nations with weak economies and a fleeing middle class.

[Bacchus39]

2. ALBA is very ineffective and I suspect Honduras will leave or be kicked out

making it even more irrelevant than before.

Castro and Chavez want authority to veto or direct US foreign policy as do their supporters here.

[flamingdem]

3. Are you guys brothers or something? The "B" brothers jejeje nt

[Braulio]

4. It's not a laughing matter

The world has a serious problem: many leftists take control of government and then proceed to ruin the economy. Leftists like Lula da Silva and Michelle Bachelet, and of course President Obama, are the ones people should support. Radicals like the Castro brothers, Evo Morales, and Chavez, ruin the economy by pressing too hard towards communism. So it's not a laughing matter, because this world does have a lot of injustice and poorly distributed income. When those guys fail, they cause harm beyond their borders.

[Mika]

5. So I guess leftist radicals ruined the US economy too.

Last I checked there are and were no homeless tent cities in Cuba even during the special period's hardest of times.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=tent+cities+in+america&aq=0&oq=tent+cities&aqi=g10

[flamingdem]

6. jejejejejejejejejeje it's a laughing matter because you are a cliche nt