U.S. plans to host a Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June have been upended by several countries dropping out.
Why? They are boycotting our mean-spirited decision to not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Seems these poor, small countries don’t bend to America’s demanding they kowtow to US unipolar dominance of the world, especially in America’s backyard.
Mexican president Andres Lopez Obrador, Bolivian president Luis Arce, Argentine president Alberto Fernandez have all called for the US to invite the 3 targets of US hatred or they won’t attend. That poses a huge dilemma for President Biden who claims he’s re-instituting sensible diplomacy to US foreign policy after 4 years of Trump mismanagement and bungling.
In 1933 newbie president FDR announced the Good Neighbor policy with Latin America reversing decades of economic exploitation and military intervention. That policy worked for a time but was jettisoned during the Cold War. America viewed every progressive movement there as communist influenced that had to be reversed, the people be damned.
The main targets were the Big 3: Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. We’ve been interfering in the socialist government of Venezuela since early this century. Our war against Nicaragua goes back to the Reagan 80’s which inspired his treacherous Iran Contra scandal which should have gotten Reagan impeached. But for US skullduggery, nothing compares to Cuba, who have been sanctioned unmercifully now for 62 years.
Unfortunately, America continues to be a terrible neighbor to Latin America, causing many invitees to the Summit of the Americas next month to tell Uncle Sam, "Stuff it."
Walt Zlotow became involved in antiwar activities upon entering University of Chicago in 1963. He is current president of the West Suburban Peace Coalition based in the Chicago western suburbs. He blogs daily on antiwar and other issues at www.heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com.
One word describes our attitude toward other countries – dominance,with bullying.
The Summit of the Americas should be called “The Summit of the United States of the Americas”.Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina are boycotting the summit. If the other countries in the Western Hemisphere boycott the summit, it will be cancelled.
I do wish they would, or have their own conference and not invite the troublemaker in El Norte.
Good for Mexico!
Reality check: the “poor small countries” that “don’t bend”? You’re talking about dictators that “don’t bend”. It’s not the “countries” but a small clique controlling them. Don’t talk as if The Socialist State speaks for the people, the usual Marxist propaganda line.
The communist criminals in Cuba killed a larger percentage of the people than Stalin killed in the Soviet Union. Which makes them, along with the Red Khmers and the Maoists, modern history’s worst killers. They pay gangs armed with bats and chains to tyrannize neighborhoods to pacify the people. The regime leaders treat the country as their own possession. Until 2013 the slaves weren’t even allowed to leave.
Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua is holding on tooth and claw since if he ever loses the presidency, he’ll be immediately arrested for “disappearing” 300 students who protested against him. He only escapes trial for the mass murder through presidential immunity. He was condemned even by socialist governments in the region and in Spain, as the latest “election” was so blatantly false. He banned more than 40 top opposition figures from even running. That’s like Biden banning the entire leadership in the GOP from running against him. (Biden, by the way, also objected to the false election.) He forbade opposition parties from campaigning. He used the entire bloated state apparatus to hand him the victory. Casting a ballot became a useless act.
The dictator in Venezuela has ignored the decisions by the elected parliament, and simply rules by decree. Imagine if Biden would simply ignore whatever Congress votes for. Yes, that’s called a dictatorship, and a tyranny. He has illegally installed his own cronies as top judges to carry out his will. The socialist party bosses have stolen farms and mansions for themselves – they are simply thieves calling themselves a party. True to form for Marxists, they have helped criminal gangs pray on the people, when they aren’t shooting at protesters. The law-abiding aren’t allowed to fight back against the criminals, a typical case of anarcho-tyranny.
This may be so, and the governments and peoples of these countries are going to have to find their own paths to reconciliation and moving forward. All I’m saying is that the malign influence of the United States, whatever its motivations, often hurts more than it helps.
You‘ve been listening to too much NPR.
“That policy worked for a time but was jettisoned during the Cold War.
America viewed every progressive movement there as communist influenced
that had to be reversed, the people be damned.”
Quite the opposite, for all its faults the U.S. attempted to oppose “progressive” movements (which _were_ actually communist) because they did NOT want the people to be damned.
I heard all sorts of crap about how bad Pinochet was until I looked at a documentary – by a communist film maker no less – that made it clear that Allende was taking Chile on a path towards famine and mass deaths until the apolitical Pinochet stepped in to stop him. (Also, I kept on hearing how Allende had popular support. It turns out this reached its maximum at about 40% in a three way recall election in which 60% of Chilenos voted to throw him out of office. I think the food shortages that had already begun when Pinochet took over were due to Allende’s incompetence rather than ill will, but to starving people it doesn’t necessarily matter _why_ they are dying.)
So when I see American progressives going on about how these “people’s movements” in Latin America were popular, were not communist, and would have helped the people of those countries I can now be confident that they are at best woefully incompetent to judge and are most likely lying.
You failed to see the US (Nixon in this case) invisible hand in destabilizing Chile’s economy under Allende. Similar to Cuba but not so blatant
“War Against All Puerto Ricans | Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony”
Puerto Rico is where Dr. Rhodes perfected transplanting cancer, that happened during the Roosevelt administration. This is a sad book. There are parts of this book I wish I could unread.