The last Summit of the Americas, in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2012, was
a disaster for President Obama. There were scandals involving Secret
Service agents and sex workers, an increasing rebellion from the South
against the failed U.S. "War on Drugs," and -- most of all -- unanimous
opposition to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.
The most decisive
evidence that this was not just the usual suspects stirring up trouble
was the warning from President Manuel Santos of Colombia -- one of
Washington's few "friendlies" in the region -- that there would not be
another Summit without Cuba.
So President Obama offered up a
surprise Christmas present to the United States' Southern neighbors last
year: After more than a half-century of aggression against Cuba, he
would finally begin to normalize relations. Welcome to the 21st century,
finally! Although Republican jihadis and neocons would inevitably delay
the process in Congress, the White House publicly expressed hope that
there would at least be embassies open in the two countries before the
Summit on April 10.
But the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
On March 9 the White House declared a "national emergency" due to the
"extraordinary threat to the national security" posed by Venezuela. The
Obama administration tried to dismiss the language as a mere formality,
but the world knows that such threatening language and accompanying
sanctions can be quite hazardous to the designated country's health --
in the past they have sometimes even been followed by military action.
Most ominously in the present, at a U.S. Senate hearing
on March 17, the State Department's Alex Lee declared that the current
sanctions were just the "first salvo" against Venezuela. Of course, the
world outside Washington knows that the sanctions have nothing to do
with any alleged human rights violations in Venezuela. From 2000 to
2010, the Colombian military assassinated more than 5,700 innocent
civilians; the U.S. government continued to provide literally billions
of dollars of military and police aid. In Honduras, the Obama
administration took numerous steps to help ensure that the 2009 military
coup against the democratically elected government of Mel Zelaya would
succeed. And in Mexico, 43 students were disappeared six months ago with
complicity of local authorities and police, and possibly federal police
and government as well. But the U.S. government does not appear to be
concerned and will not even consider reducing its military aid to
Mexico.
What the sanctions also made clear, for those who didn't
already know, is that President Obama's opening to Cuba represented
exactly zero change in Washington's overall strategy toward the region:
The intention of expanding commercial and diplomatic relations with Cuba
was mainly to pursue a more effective strategy of undermining the Cuban
government -- and all the left governments in the region. This includes
Brazil, where the U.S. State Department funded efforts to weaken the Workers' Party (PT) government in 2005, according to U.S. government documents.
Representatives
of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and nearly every country in the
Americas spoke out against the sanctions at the Organization of American
States (OAS) last Thursday in Washington. The Union of South American
Nations demanded
their repeal. So did Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations,
which includes all countries in the hemisphere except the U.S. and
Canada. And on March 26 the opposition governor of the state of Lara
sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to "take a moment of your
time to listen to the voice of the people of Venezuela and the rest of
Latin America that have spoken out in favor of the rescinding of this
executive order that you signed."
"If there is a country that is a threat in the Americas," said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño,
"it's the United States, because it has permanently invaded countries,"
"created coups d'état" and "promoted dictatorships." The Cuban
government also responded forcefully, dashing Obama's hopes of any deal
before the Summit. Negotiations in Havana that were expected to last
until mid-week ended abruptly
on Monday, March 16. So Obama will go to the Summit empty-handed and
with some egg on his face because of this ill-considered move.
These
sanctions against Venezuela violate the charter of the Organization of
American States, including Article 20, and Article 19, which states:
No
State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or
indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs
of any other State. The foregoing principle prohibits not only armed
force but also any other form of interference or attempted threat
against the personality of the State or against its political, economic,
and cultural elements.
Let's
hope that all of the governments represented at the Summit hammer it
home that this kind of "rogue state" behavior will not be tolerated.
Source: Huffington Post
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