by the El Reportero’s news services
Daniel Ortega S.
Strictly speaking, influence is exerted ‘unseen, except in its effects’. The extent to which the US has been resorting to overt entreating, cajoling and pressing in its dealings with Latin America is a sign that its influence, in this sense, has been waning.
Even in the broader sense of getting others to do one’s will, the last decade has shown it becoming far less effective. Only a few governments in the region have become openly hostile to the US, but political trends across the region show that goodwill towards Washington has dwindled far beyond that small group.
Chávez raises stakes over regional elections after Santa Cruz referendum in Bolivia
The Bolivian department of Santa Cruz voted for autonomy on 4 May. It is not yet entirely clear what this means in practice but the government of President Evo Morales insists that the referendum lacks legitimacy (see page 3). What is clear is that the regional repercussions of the referendum are already being felt. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez responded by seriously upping the ante ahead of regional and municipal elections in November. He accused the opposition of nurturing secessionist tendencies for the country’s western states, including Zulia. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, meanwhile, accused Guayaquil of forging a “separatist autonomy-seeking confederation” with Santa Cruz and Zulia.
U.S. influence in Latin America: waxing or waning?
Strictly speaking, influence is exerted ‘unseen, except in its effects’. The extent to which the US has been resorting to overt entreating, cajoling and pressing in its dealings with Latin America is a sign that its influence, in this sense, has been waning.
Even in the broader sense of getting others to do one’s will, the last decade has shown it becoming far less effective. Only a few governments in the region have become openly hostile to the US, but political trends across the region show that goodwill towards Washington has dwindled far beyond that small group.
Ortega leads anti-U.S. critique at Latin American food summit
Managua, Nicaragua – In a region beset by runaway food costs, the socialist government of Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela and its leftist allies appear to have found fertile ground to plant the seeds of revolutionary discourse.
At an emergency food-security summit held Wednesday in Managua, Nicaragua, 14 Latin American and Caribbean nations convened under the umbrella of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the leftist trade bloc founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela as an alternative to United States free-trade agreements.
The summit was supposed to focus on how the countries can prevent food shortages and unrest as the global food crisis hits the region, but it morphed into a series of complaints about US policy led by the summit’s host, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Mr. Ortega called the food crisis an ‘epic problem’ – one that he blames on the ‘tyranny of global capitalism.
