Obama's Reality Check

[Barack Obama needs to face up to the fact that existing US policies have caused havoc throughout South America.]

Obama's Reality Check

April 15th 2009, by Mark Weisbrot - Comment is Free (The Guardian)

Many people, including most of the presidents and leaders of South America, were hoping that President Obama would initiate a serious change in US-Latin American relations, after the low point reached during the Bush years. Change will certainly come – it is happening every week - but there are few if any signs that the initiative will come from the north.

The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would allow Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba to visit and send money, and that some communications links would be opened. This was widely expected, and as the Financial Times noted, it was "the minimum necessary to make sure that Obama gets a good response" at the Summit of the Americas, where 34 heads of state will meet this weekend in Trinidad and Tobago.

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