by the El Reportero’s news services
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met leaders from Central America in Costa Rica on March 30.
BIDEN tells top leaders that deportations from U.S. won’t change in short-term This was Biden’s first trip to the region since the new Barack Obama administration took office in January.
Biden promised a new era for US-Central America relations, but delivered nothing firm.
What was interesting is which Central Americans turned up to meet him. The presidents of Nicaragua and Honduras, Daniel Ortega and Manuel Zelaya, both allies of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, spurned the invitation to attend, sending representatives instead.
Both presidents, however, are likely to meet President Obama when he comes to the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad on April 17-19.
Clinton appeases Mexico
The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, pleased the Mexican government on March 25, the first day of her two-day visit to Mexico.
On the second day she was due to go north from Mexico City to Monterrey to get a clearer view of what is happening in the gang-ridden Mexican states which border the U.S.
In Jan. 14, El Reportero newspaper published a U.S. Army’s Journal story that suggested that because the United States was in danger of collapse, “the U.S. may be forced to intervene in México to prevent the country’s ‘rapid and sudden collapse.’” Another article published in the NPR online edition headline read: “the CIA And Pentagon Wonder: Could Mexico Implode?”
“Drug-related violence in Mexico is escalating at an alarming rate and threatening the government of President Felipe Calderon,” the article said. “CIA and U.S. military planners now fear a worst-case scenario — that the country could implode. The American military is quietly stepping in with more training.”
Colombia reassesses its foreign policy priorities
Colombia under the right-leaning administration of President Alvaro Uribe has positioned itself as the US’s closest regional ally.
The arrival in the White House of President Barack Obama has, however, prompted a subtle shift in Colombia-US relations, with the new administration likely to oversee a gradual reduction in US military aid to Colombia.
With this in mind, Colombia is reaching out to the region’s emergent leader – and Obama’s regional ally of choice – Brazil. Bogotá’s decision to join the Brazil-initiated South American Defense Council, attached to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), formally launched in March, was a clear gesture to the government of President Lula da Silva.
Central America looks to U.S. for solution to economic crisis
To offset the recent wave of factory closings and work suspensions at U.S. textile and manufacturing plants in Central America, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is asking the U.S. government for an economic bailout plan for Central America.
Speaking at Wednesday’s extraordinary presidential meeting of the Central American Integration System, Ortega went against the current of other leaders in attendance by criticizing the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) as being fickle and unjust. Despite the promises of CAFTA-DR, Ortega said, “What’s happening now is that they are closing U.S. investment linked to the trade agreement in Central American countries, especially in Honduras and Nicaragua.’’
The closing of free-trade zones has already led to 20,000 lost jobs in Honduras, and independent economic analysts in Nicaragua predicts an additional 30,000 – 50,000 jobs will be lost in Nicaragua this year, on top of the thousands already lost at the end of 2008. more workers.
(Latin News, NBC News, and the Miami Herald contributed to this report.)
