Obama extends hands with Chavez and Ortega

“President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America’s hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela‘s leftist leader.”

 

Smith, Mark. Obama extends hands to Chavez, Ortega at Summit. Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from [Source]

 

 

Since Barack Obama assumed office in January 2009, he has worked hard and diligently in easing friction and tensions between the United States and other countries abroad. Last week, Obama announced he is ready to accept Raul Castro’s proposal talks to lift the 47-year trade embargo imposed on Cuba subsequent to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

While at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday, Obama exchanged handshakes and pats on the back with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who once likened President George W. Bush to the devil. At the summit, Obama promised a new hemispheric growth fund an initiative to increase Caribbean security and a partnership to develop alternative energy sources and fight global warming. In front of photographers, Chavez gave Obama a copy of “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” a book by Eduardo Galeano that chronicles U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region. This could mean that Chavez is trying to send a message to Obama that the policies of America and Europe need to change referencing political presence in Latin America.

 

Later, during a group photo, Obama reached behind several leaders at the summit to shake Chavez’ hand for the third time. Obama summoned a translator and the two smiled and spoke briefly. Those two exchanges followed a brief grip-and-grin for cameras on Friday night when Obama greeted Chavez in Spanish.”I think it was a good moment,” Chavez said about their initial encounter. “I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president.”

 

At a luncheon speech to fellow leaders, Chavez said the spirit of respect is encouraging and he proposed that Havana host the next summit.”I’m not going to speak for Cuba. It’s not up to me… (but) all of us here are friends of Cuba, and we hope the United States will be, too,” Chavez said.

 

Obama also extended a hand to Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, whom President Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive from power. Ortega was ousted in 1990 elections that ended Nicaragua’s civil war, but was returned to power by voters in 2006. Ortega stepped up and introduced himself to Obama, U.S. officials said. But a short time later, Ortega delivered a blistering 50-minute speech that denounced capitalism and U.S. imperialism as the root of much hemispheric mischief. The address even recalled the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, though Ortega said the new U.S. president could not be held to account for that.

 

Obama’s initiative to reinstate ties and relation with Latin America is in the making and will play an integral role in his plan to utilize renewable energy sources for the future.

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CS

Venezuela, Cuba to host Russian Bombers

“Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region.”

 

 

Nowak, David. Cuba, Venezuela could host Russian Bombers. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from [Source]

 

 

For the past eight months, since the Georgian – S. Ossetian conflict occurred and when the United States declared a missile-defense shield, placed in Poland, Russia has been on the forefront of projecting its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defense budget and hardware that remains outdated based on what experts report. Russia plans to execute an objective to place bombers in Venezuela and Cuba; countries that are at the backdoor of the United States.

 

The chief of the Russian air force strategic aviation staff, General Anatoly Zhikharev, stated that the air force is unsure of placing bombers in Venezuela as they are positive bombers will be placed in Cuba; giving these bombers 90 miles outside the coast of Florida. Zhikharev indicated that Russia was only looking for occasional use of the bases and not a permanent use. He also noted that Russia is prohibited of establishing military bases in Venezuela due to the Venezuelan constitution that makes such prohibition. President Hugo Chavez allowed Russia to use one of the military airfields, on La Orchila Island where Zhikharev agreed to only “land, complete the flight, and take off.”  

 

The United States remain curious and will continue to watch the moves of the Russian military as they have showed signals of neutrality for the past year. It is important for the United States to keep an eye on what the Russians are conducting in the South Americas and off the coasts of the United States to ensure a ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ does not revisit the 21^st century.

 

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CS

Chavez Wins Referendum to end Term Limits in Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, paving the way for him to run again in 2012 — and beyond — and push through his vision of a socialist Venezuela.

 

Toothaker, Christopher. Chavez Calls Venezuela Vote Mandate for Socialism. Retrieved on February 16, 2009 from [Source]

 

 

The people of Venezuela voted overwhelmingly in favor of scrapping term limits for presidents from the Venezuelan constitution. This will not only allow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run again in the 2012 election, but it will allow future presidents to assume office for more than two-term limits.

 

Chavez has been president for nearly a decade in Venezuela. In 1999, he assumed office and had a vision to implement his 21^st Century Socialism which purports to alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization and undermining regional stability. For years there have been a number of concerns about a weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations and irresponsible mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples. This referendum vote to reform the nation’s constitution of two-term limits for presidents is what Chavez calls, “a mandate for Socialism.”

 

Based on the people of Venezuela, they voted overwhelmingly for socialism. This will now allow Chavez to unleash and have more time to make Venezuela more like Cuba; where he will create laws by decree and go after private property in attempts to make the entire country into a Socialist State. Those who had voted “yes” for the referendum to end two-term limits said Chavez has given poor Venezuelans cheap food, free education and quality health care, and empowered them with a discourse of class struggle after decades of U.S.-backed governments that favored the rich. No successor has emerged, and voters said they worry their gains will vanish if Chavez leaves office. If Chavez did lose this vote, not only would their gains be lost, but Chavez’s entire social achievements would disappear and the initiative to reform the nation into a Socialist State would not be in effect. Those who voted “no” state that Chavez has too much power in the state where he controls the courts, legislature and election council, and with this scrap to the constitution would make Chavez unstoppable.

 

Venezuela’s leftist allies in Latin America have followed the model. Ecuador pushed through a new constitution in September and Bolivia did so in January. Both loosened rules on presidential re-election. Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinistas also plan to propose an amendment that would let Daniel Ortega run for another consecutive term. This transition to “unlimited power” for Chavez only sends a message to the world that Communism, now known as “socialism” is still on the brink of rising in hopes to remain a domino effect of nations to fall for socialism in Latin America. If Chavez’s vision becomes a success, Venezuela and other Latin American countries that are following a method where the state is in control of all the powers, lacks a method of separation of powers, utilizes an unscrupulous use of state resources and a persecutes adversaries, would effectively form into a dictatorship.

 

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CS