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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