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Presidents Thaw US-Venezuela Rift
PORT of SPAIN - Venezeulan President Hugo Chavez has vowed to seek closer ties with the US and is considering taking steps to send an ambassador to Washington after the countries expelled each others' envoys last year.
Book beginnings: President Obama (left) shakes hands with President Chavez and points at his gift copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano's book. Photo: AFP Mr
Chavez said he spoke with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
marking a change from his approach to diplomacy with the administration
of George Bush, whom Mr Chavez once likened to the devil.
"I feel great optimism, and the best goodwill to move forward," Mr Chavez said after a meeting between US President Barack Obama and presidents from the Union of South American Nations in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
"I have no doubt that there will be, going forward, greater closeness."
Acting State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Mr Chavez had approached Mrs Clinton at the meeting and they discussed returning ambassadors to their respective posts in Caracas and Washington.
"This is a positive development that will help advance US interests, and the State Department will now work to further this shared goal," Mr Wood said.
Venezuela, the fourth-biggest foreign supplier of crude oil to the US, has repeatedly accused Americans of aiding the political opposition to Mr Chavez, a former paratrooper.
In 2002, Mr Chavez charged the Central Intelligence Agency with masterminding a brief coup against him.
Mr Chavez, who last month called Mr Obama an "ignoramus" when it comes to Latin America, gave Mr Obama a copy of Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano's book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.
When asked by reporters at the Fifth Summit of the Americas whether he planned to read the book, Mr Obama, who doesn't speak Spanish, joked: "I thought it was one of Chavez's. I was going to give him one of mine."
Mr Chavez regularly accused former president Bush of trying to destabilise his Government, and in a 2006 speech to the United Nations called him "the devil". In September, Mr Chavez expelled US ambassador Patrick Duddy to show solidarity with Bolivia, which had also kicked out its US envoy.
Mr Obama said he recognised that it would take time to improve relations with Latin America, which he said felt neglected by the Bush administration.
Other Latin American critics of the US were less enthusiastic about the nation's new President.
Bolivia's Evo Morales, a former coca grower who has clashed with the US since taking office in 2006, said "policies of conspiracy" had not changed under Mr Obama.
"If there is a real change, a change in economic policy, and if there are relations based on mutual respect, it will be better," Mr Morales said. "We can't go back to the past."
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega two days ago greeted Mr Obama with a 50-minute speech that included harangues about "Yankee troops" and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Mr Ortega said Mr Obama wasn't responsible for President John Kennedy's misadventure.
"I'm grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Mr Obama said.
- Posted in
36 Comments so far
Show AllCorrect me if I'm wrong but the video I saw the other day had Chavez rushing over to Obama and catching him off guard with a hand shake.
If that was the case then it was a smart game plan for Hugo as he created the photo-op he desired and put Obama on the defensive.
Chavez is the master of catching folks off guard. he's a super-intuitive guy.
I choose to look at the positive. One change we can believe in.
I choose to look at the positive. One change we can believe in.
Fox News dream come true
.
The whiskey distilled in Iraq is named "Mr. Chavez Whiskey". I think we have an international folkhero in Mr. Chavez.
I would have preferred Obama to be less glib and promise to read the book, education is a paver in the road to peace.
He should have read the book years ago, as it has been in English translation since the 70s!
Galeano was here in Mexico for a couple of weeks--promoting his new book (well, it was new a year ago), Espejos, and giving talks and book signings. Unfortunately, I was out of the country until the last day he was here--but I did get to talk with him the last time he was here--Match of 2000. I was practically in tears.
There is no way that Obama c an have any real understaning of Latin America without reading Las Venas Abiertas.
Ole! A new day has dawned! If I were an old man, I could say, "now I can die a happy man".
And to anyone who has a negative reaction to seeing these two men shaking hands and talking, I say politely, pull your head out of your (ahem), the sand.
This is a turning point in history that can lead to real peace. And isn't that our common dream, folks? Yeah baby! Viva la paz! Viva la vida!
Moondoggy I respect your enthusiasm and optimism,as you should respect other more cautious reactions.
The discussion of maybe trading ambassadors is a first step towards peace or maybe not.
Which S.A. head of state quipped that such and such government did not suffer a coup attempt because it was the only S.A. nation without a USA embassy?
A photo op between politicians is next to meaningless. We have Bush shaking Taliban hands at Crawford shortly before he attacked.
We have Rumsfeld shaking Sadams hand years before he attacked Iraq.
It's a step in the right direction. You would never see Dubya shaking hands with Hugo. Rummy and Sadaam's handshake was over an arms deal. Those guys are war criminals. These guys are progressive leaders who are taking the world in a positive direction. Huge difference.
Our new president will have serious problems with relations in S.A. countries that have natural resources because the past administrations have gotten involved with or installed opposition leaders who create problems for the heads of governments there . If we dig in to the chaos over water in Equador we find a member of a past adminstration here as the puppet master . In Venezuela the poor people favor Chavez while the rich commerce and media controllers are against his every move so our media follows suit . As in all countries the poor out number the rich in Venezuela so elections produce the leader of the poor . The book Mr Chavez gave Mr Obama is Mr Chavez's way of asking Mr Obama to please understand what forces are against any attempts to mend fences and as we can see here in our country it created quite a stir by the media which is controlled by our Wall Street . As in this country the rich seek to control all of the natural resources and will create wars , "TAKE HIM OUT" , and/or create chaos to establish that control .
I see this as a good sign.
Once the reasons for distrust, corporate exploitation, anti-commie invasions, WODs, embargoes and such are gone, people's relief and their desire for positive change is so great that much can be achieved.
Conservatives who stand in the way of positive change are sticking out like sore thumbs.
The oligarchy is wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, but they are losing control of their propaganda organs to the Internet.
It's better to talk than fight. Besides, we have relations with many governments that are worse than Venezuela's.
Would you lilke to tell us just which governments that you have relations with are BETTER than Venezuela's.
I cannot think of any.
Not to be picky but how does one thaw a rift? A rift is a tear and not a state of being frozen.
q
That's twentyfirst century gringo journalists for you.
Idiots--all of them.
In the minds of most of our dumbed-down stenographer-journalists it is probably a hack-kneed cliche. However, the realilty is that such a mixed metaphor can be useful for holding distinctly different but complimentary notions in mind at the same time.
In this case tne twin facts that US relations with those of Latin America have been frozen in the "gunboat diplomacy" and "anti-communist" paradigm of 50+ years ago. Aditionally, basing relationships on such obsolete irrelevencies has torn the fabric of unity that could and ought to exist between those of the western hemisphere and opened up our Southern neighbors to seeking new markets for their raw materials (translate: China) and cultural affiliation by their older masters (translate: Europe).
These new partners will ultimately be just as domineering economically and culturally as the US was but at least they won't be the US--this is not a very enticing consolation for either North or South in the Western Hemisphere.
Poet
"A rift is a tear and not a state of being frozen."
Very good.....
Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano is a good writer, I've read some of his essays but none of his books yet.
http://www.amazon.com/Open-Veins-Latin-America-Centuries/dp/0853459916
I wonder if Obama will actually read it ? It's not like he has a lot of free time, but if he can finish it one vacation weekend, it would help his insight into Latin America.
Didn't Chavez recommend a Noam Chomsky book at the UN in the last year or two ? I wonder if Chavez has read all the books he recommends ... he probably has, I hear he's actually pretty intelligent and curious.
Start with Open Veins. It's more academic than the others--crammed with excellent footnotes.
Chavez DID recommend a Chomsky book during the same UN speech where he smelled sulfur--or was that mendacity?
The Chomsky immediately became a best-seller, too.
The problem with the folks that buy those books is that they don't ever read them.
Chavez, on the other hand, is a voracious reader.
Open Veins is his "libro de cabecera" (pillow book).
Let's hope that Obama is the socialist the right accused him of being and together with Chavez, Morales, Ortega, Lula, and the new president of El Salvador they will forge an alliance that will benefit the poor of the Americas and end corporate control of the resources of the Western Hemisphere - we can only hope, for at least a bit of a shift to the left - at what other point in history have we had so many leftists in power?
"Bolivia's Evo Morales, a former coca grower who has clashed with the US since taking office in 2006, said "policies of conspiracy" had not changed under Mr Obama."
Mr. Morales is correct. Barack Obama's beliefs and actions toward Native Americans in the United States would be a clear signal to Native Americans in South America. The Obama administration has continued the Elitist policies toward Native Americans, i.e., continue the policies of quiet genocide but throw a few crumbs to cloak their true intentions.
Mr. Obama does not believe in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples passed in 2007 and signed by all Nations except three, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Nor does he accept the horrendous role of Christianity in the Native American Genocide as expressed in the Papal Bull Inter Caetera and related in the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and Dominion. Nor does he recognize that the Northwest Ordinance, the law that keeps Native Americans subjugated, was based upon the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Dominion, an obvious unconstitutional mixture of church and state. Mr. Obama is in league with American Elites and is not at liberty to violate their wishes that leadership (ownership) in South America remain in the hands of European Elites who invaded and occupied their country five hundred years ago.
Obama leads an imperialist country and believes that he is slick enough to continue imperial policies by sweet talking Indigenous South Americans. Hubris. Obama will get his arce kicked from four directions.
Thank you, Stone. You hit the nail right on the head. For starters, President Obama and his Attorney General could start by re-opening the horribly manipulated Leonard Peltier trial, or simply by ordering him freed. That would go a way to removing the stain the FBI slopped on American justice toward our original peoples.
And here is n eye-opener for you. Adding to the original peoples north of the Rio Grance, the descendants of Mexicans who have lived in this country prior to the Mexican-American war are by definition Indigenous peoples, even by the watered down blood quantum requirement imposed by the white supremacists in Washington. The same goes for all the immigrants of whatever stripe from Central and South America. There were and are simply insufficient pure blooded Spaniards from the conquest to the present to have significantly reduce the blood of Indigenous people from south of the river. Look, for example, at Pres. Calderon of Mexico, who can be said to be wearing the Mexican cactus on his head. Deny it he may, but he is Indian to the core.
It was sad to see Obama joke about the book. Eduardo Galeano is a South American journalist and intellectual comparable say, to Bill Moyers. Obama's idiotic remark about being blamed for actions taken when he was 3 years old is emblematic of the disconnect and ignorance the Washington elite display every chance they get toward our neighbors to the south. This nonsense will continue to our peril, as China, Russia, Indian and other eoonomies interested in the south are beginning to make clear.
Hugo is dragging O'Bamba into the socialist fold, heh heh. Ringwinger's nightmare. But Dixie will survive, Dixie will thrive, away down souuuuuth in diiiiixie.
Let us hope Obama embraces South American countries as equals. It is time to get over the concept of Manifest Destiny. President Obama can still object to policies he doesn't agree with, but not getting the CIA to foment revolution.
When the Sandinistas won their revolution in 1979,the U.S. corporate media put the same spin on them that I suppose they are now applying to Hugo Chavez. In Nicaragua - yes the Sandinistas wore military uniforms, but they were carrying tools instead of rifles, they were working, building schools and clinics and such. They were doing what needed to be done and the local $$$ class had little good to say about them. But the $$$ class spoke and their opinion was being argued openly and loudly in all the usual places. In El Salvador on the other hand, the soldiers wore the look of machismo and if people spoke at all it was in low tones. The Salvadoran government however, was then the #2 recipient of U.S. "aid", while in Nicaragua the treasury had been left with about one dollar for each citizen. Naturally, the previous despot and pal to the U.S.,Samosa, and some of his pals, took pretty much every valuable everything when they left. This scenario is of course a cliche and a legacy that makes further exploitation increasingly difficult and embarrassing. The U.S. Empire is dwindling fast, and these computers are taking away this Empires primary building block - the lie.
I see that Chavez is still sending Venezuelan oil to poor Americans to heat their homes in the winter - meanwhile EXXON has regained top place on the Fortune 500 by overcharging poor people worldwide.
Food for thought - but not for the starving, eh?
"viejolex1 April 19th, 2009 3:55 pm
...
It was sad to see Obama joke about the book. Eduardo Galeano is a South American journalist and intellectual comparable say, to Bill Moyers. Obama's idiotic remark about being blamed for actions taken when he was 3 years old is emblematic of the disconnect and ignorance the Washington elite display every chance they get toward our neighbors to the south. ..."
That's all I read of viejolex1's post, because I'm only looking for posts that may provide some information on Eduardo Galeano, the author of the book Chavez gave to Obama; hoping to also find that there are some videos with him, but in English, or at least French, the only two languages I understand. There are certainly videos with him speaking in Spanish, or whatever the language spoken in Argentina is though; for anyone capable of understanding that language and wanting to check for these videos.
First, and re. "Obama's idiotic remark about being blamed for ...", I'm not sure it was idiotic, and it seems, to me, that he didn't get "blamed for ...".
QUOTE (from the article):
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega two days ago greeted Mr Obama with a 50-minute speech that included harangues about "Yankee troops" and the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. Mr Ortega said Mr Obama wasn't responsible for President John Kennedy's misadventure.
"I'm grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Mr Obama said.
END QUOTE
Daniel Ortega said "Obama wasn't responsible for ...", and Obama said, "I'm grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for ..." (for a little emphasis).
Re. the comparison of Eduardo Galeano with Bill Moyers, I don't know that I'd say that they're particularly alike. Bill Moyers is with PBS, which occasionally produces or broadcasts bs propaganda or propaganda based on falsehoods, and Bill Moyers has what for background, journalism? Eduardo Galeano, the above The Age article says, is a historian. There's an immediate distinction to take note of, if Bill Moyers isn't also a historian.
Otoh, the article linked below and at Progressive.org says that Eduardo Galeano is "a Uruguayan writer and journalist", not mentioning 'historian'; although his article is entirely about history(ies) evidently very censored in the imperialist, ... West and making him seem like he credibly is a historian. Is he really a historian though? Well, it seems he's not; according to Wikipedia anyway.
Quote: "Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is an Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His books have been translated into many languages. His works transcend orthodox genres, combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has denied that he is a historian: "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."[citation needed]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano
Anyway, and since I wasn't able to find videos with him in English, I did a Web search for articles and found the following for now. It's certainly interesting in terms of the historical snips, say, that he provides in this piece; eye-opening bits of history from thousands of years ago, to 15th, ..., 19th and 20th centuries, worldwide bits.
"Sample Galeano, the Great Writer Hugo Chavez introduced Obama to
By Eduardo Galeano, April 2008 issue
Paradoxes and Misnomers
By Eduardo Galeano, April 2008 Issue"
http://www.progressive.org/mag_galeano0408
Given what he says in that article and assuming that what he says is all true, I wonder if Bill Moyers and PBS would state the same thing about these periods or parts of human history. I hope they would, assuming the above article is entirely truthful; but would they? According to MohawkNationNews.com, PBS is not very truthful about Native American history, or the part about it in relation with the British invaders, etcetera. Or perhaps it's not that it's not truthful, but the way the video or "documentary" series of 5 episodes that began to be aired April 12, 2009, is being used, to try to break up the ties between Native American tribes; fitting with what evidently is Obama's agenda, one of them. Interested readers will find that reference in the third paragraph of the following article.
"Obama Said, 'The Lines Of Tribes Shall Be Dissolved'
A Declaration Of War?"
by Kahentinetha and Karakwine, Apr 15 2009
www.mohawkNationNews.com (see News index)
Back to the main topic of this post, and assuming the content of the book Chavez gave to Obama is of an order like the above article at Progressive.org, I really wonder what Obama will think when reading it, and wonder if the parts on what Eduardo Galeano says about what was done to Africa and Africans will constructively benefit Obama. Based on that article, I imagine that Chavez gave Obama a [great] book and would love to read it myself. It'd be great to find some videos with Eduardo Galeano speaking in English or with English as subtitles, or French, if not English; but if none are found, then I'll use articles by him.
The above MNN article is surely relevant too, given that what the Euro-imperialists, ... who invaded, genocided, ... the southern hemisphere of the Americas also did much the same in the northern hemisphere.
I also found that Progressive.org and Z Space at ZMag.org have column spaces for some of his articles.
http://www.progressive.org/galeano
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/eduardogaleano
Actually, the Wikipedia page on him has two, or more, links with him at DemocracyNow.org and another link for an interview with MonthlyReview.org, and DN provides videos for this, in English to boot (we all know)!
Senor Obama, Ole!
Venezuala, where a people's leader reins, yes. "The best goodwill to move forward." And Cuba, And BO's intent to legalize 17 Million undoc workers in the US.
I've seen SO much heart and soul in the Mexican & Latin American people I have met-all Latinos except a few idiots in Miami who hated Castro.
Obama captains a ship of war, but he is a benevolent king who does good when not too busy navigating treacherous waters and rocky shoals.
stringtheory
"azjoe April 19th, 2009 11:42 pm
Senor Obama, Ole!
...
Obama captains a ship of war, but he is a benevolent king who does good when not too busy navigating treacherous waters and rocky shoals."
FINE post, but Obama being of truly good will with respect to Latin America, relations between it and the U.S, which is not governed by The People of the USA, but by the Big Finance, Big Oil, Big MIC, ... ruling elites of the USA? Are you joking?
Bill Clinton's two terms did no real good for Latin America, and like Obama, Clinton was a figurehead president; because the real ruling parties that decide what the U.S. government can and can't do, what it will and won't do, now they're always present, president, after president, after ...; always. The oligarchy of aristocratic corporatists, etcetera, does not go away, because the U.S. does not elect truly qualified political candidates to office; except for the relatively few, who are far too few to be able to succeed in correcting the way the U.S. government governs or is governed.
But maybe the Obama administration will be allowed to do some good for the souther America(s) and Carribean. The administration's apparently offering to do good by Haitians in the U.S., to not require them to return to Haiti, and this is good; but will be a bandaid solution unless the administration sees to correcting the majorly catastrophic, evil, ... actions applied to Haiti since Feb. 29, 2004! Will the administration see to correcting this huge wrong? I doubt it, but maybe the administration will be surprising me about this; surprising me well, that is.
If they do not do right for Haiti, then I don't expect they'll do right with the rest of the southern Americas; Central, Latin, ... and Carribean. Otoh, part of Latin America is in No. America, Mexico. Well, that's also a country the administration needs to correct major U.S. wrongs for too, so ...!
I won't be expecting any real good of significant extent. There may be a [little] provided, but I doubt there'll be much, and HUGELY MUCH is owed.
Lastly, the following is another resource page or index for articles by Eduardo Galeano.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Eduardo_Galeano/Eduardo_Galeano_page.html
Hello MikeCorbeil,
I agree any pres works for the biggest multi-nationals first.
Accumulated capitol, lobbyists, Israel and the MIC next.
Oh, and yes, the American people, I nearly forgot.
In my pov, unlike his predessor, BO is infected with shreds of decency not yet euthanized....thus when opportunities arise to do good that do not overtly effect corporate profits or Tel-Aviv's directives, Obama will do what he can.
But tell Exxon to quit raping the ME?
Attack the CIA?
Call in an Air-Strike on Wall Street?
I agree he won't.......
"Some Good" is surely not revolutionary.....
josephincali
Morales cautious statements is certainly justified. While undergoing his fast for passage of land reform, he barely escaped an assassination attempt.
The assassination plotters were killed in a shootout. It would be pretty unusual if the plotters didn't get at least some CIA help.
And Ortega is well aware of how things work too. The cries of the thousands slaughtered by the CIA contra thugs will not be just swept under the carpet with a "bygones will be bygones".
Some smiles and handshakes by Obama will not dismantle the massive CIA covert action machine. It has thousands of well-paid employees working away in both the embassies and their desks in Langley, with a relaible $multibillion black budget to keep things running smoothly.