New alignment for U.S., Latin America after Panama
New alignment for U.S., Latin America after Panama
by: Emile Schepers
May 15 2015
The Western Hemisphere emerged from the Summit of the Americas in Panama, Apr. 10-11 with a new alignment of forces.
As President Obama had, on Dec. 17, announced a radical change in U.S. policy toward Cuba, for which he was widely praised worldwide, the impression was that he would have smooth sailing at the summit. But on Mar. 9, the Obama administration put sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials, accompanied by a declaration of an emergency which justified sanctions as being necessary because the situation in Venezuela represented an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States.
The sanctions had been voted by Congress in December, at the initiative of some of the most extreme right wing Republicans, and Obama had signed the law on Dec. 19. The sanctions were imposed supposedly in response to the prosecution by Venezuela of a small number of political figures whom President Nicolas Maduro accused of plotting a coup or who had fomented violent protests last year which left 43 dead.
The sanctions and the "threat" language instantly changed the atmosphere of the Panama Summit. The justification of the measures in the name of defending human rights also produced cries of "hypocrisy", given worldwide publicity of police abuses in the United States itself. There were indignant denunciations from the leaders of almost all governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Latin American and Caribbean Community of Nations (CELAC), which includes every country in the Western Hemisphere except the United States and Canada, denounced the U.S. move. In the draft final document of the Panama Summit, eventually vetoed by the United States and Canada, there was to have been a resolution condemning "unilateral sanctions."
More:
http://peoplesworld.org/new-alignment-for-u-s-latin-america-after-panama/
