I was gliding along the Massachusetts Turnpike, enjoying a summer Sunday in the Berkshires, thinking I was on vacation, when I got an urgent cell phone call from a news anchor at one of the nation's most progressive radio stations. "Will you comment on today's news from Israel?" he asked.
"What news?" I was on vacation from the world and its problems.
The good news is that Latin American criticism of the Obama
administration's failure to pressure the coup regime in Honduras has
reached the level that Obama himself can no longer ignore it. The bad
news is that Obama's response so far seems to be to stay the course:
talk left, act right.
BOGOTA - In the 1960s, it went by
the name of Latin American Security Operation, or Plan LASO; today it
is known as Plan Colombia. Back then, the aim was to weed out
communism; now it is to combat drug trafficking, while at the same time
dealing a blow to the guerrillas.
There were great hopes in Latin America when President Obama was elected. U.S. standing in the region had reached a low point under George W. Bush, and all of the left governments expressed optimism that Obama would take Washington’s policy in a new direction.
These hopes have been dashed. President Obama has continued the Bush policies and in some cases has done worse.
The recent events in Honduras are not isolated, but rather part of a conservative counterattack taking shape in Latin America. For some time, the right has been rebuilding in Latin America; hosting conferences, sharing experiences, refining their message, working with the media, and building ties with allies in the United States. This is not the lunatic rightwing fringe, but rather the mainstream right with powerful allies in the middle class that used to consider themselves center, but have been frightened by recent left electoral victories and the rise of social movements.
The coup in Honduras - and the at best grudging and vacillating
support in Washington for the restoration of President Zelaya - has
thrown into stark relief a fundamental fault line in Latin America and
a moral black hole in U.S. policy toward the region.
What is the minimum wage which a worker shall be paid for a day's labor?
While the Obama administration was careful to distance itself from the recent coup in Honduras — condemning the expulsion of President Manuel Zelaya to Costa Rica,
revoking Honduran officials' visas, and shutting off aid — that doesn't mean influential Americans aren't involved, and that both sides of the aisle don't have some explaining to do.
The story most U.S.
Much of the debate about US
President Barack Obama's push for Middle East peace resembles the
proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty.
But even a full glass is not very useful if you need to fill an entire
reservoir.
A common assumption is that earlier American administrations were
insufficiently "engaged." Obama's early moves, including the
appointment of former Northern Ireland mediator George Mitchell as his
envoy, have therefore been widely welcomed.
The mediation effort that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton arranged to try to resolve the crisis in Honduras,
which began when a military coup removed Honduran President Mel Zelaya
more than four weeks ago, has failed. It is now time – some would say
overdue – for the Latin American governments to play their proper role.
Let's hope that the United States finally decides that it's going to
do what its president said it would do for Central America. It should
be a simple task, that of cutting off its support of the bad guys in Honduras
and starting to honour the commitment to democracy that Barack Obama
clearly announced when he met the leaders of Latin America at the
Summit of the Americas.
