Should reason prevail… 

By Manuel E. Yepe
July 2008


A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.

 

There’s no waste in the inaugural speech Barack Obama would supposedly deliver in January 2009, should he stick to the text prepared by the experienced British journalist and historian Richard Gott published in The Guardian last July 9.

 

Gott explains in his “project” that although Iraq and the US economy have dominated the US presidential race, Latin America presents important challenges for the next president to solve, and to that effect, assuming Barack Obama wins the election in November, he recommends a text that amounts to a whole new continental agenda.  

Obama would say: “In some parts of the world, in recent years, we have tried to do too much. In Latin America, we have done too little. With our attention focused elsewhere, anti-American forces have moved in to fill the vacuum. Today we have little to build on, and few friends in the continent. Yet I have promised change, US citizens have voted for change, and change is what I intend to bring about.” 

Then he would go on to recall some positive features of fellow past presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. About the latter he would say that the “Alliance for Progress” was an approach to Latin America seen as an “alternative to the revolutionary rhetoric of Castro”. 

Obama would recognize that “the continent has changed dramatically since that time, notably in the 20 years since the end of the cold war. Latin America has begun to stand up, to march forward without assistance. It has thrown off the military dictatorships that successive American governments so misguidedly supported. Democracy is no longer the exception, but the rule. We cannot ignore these developments: neither the banner of Simón Bolívar that now flies again over much of the continent, nor the sudden explosion of the indigenous peoples that has spread out from the countries of the Andes.” 

What follows would be: “The most significant change will concern the island of Cuba, where the policies of my 10 immediate predecessors have failed to advance the interests of the United States. We meet today in the month of the 50th anniversary of the original Cuban revolution, in January 1959, and we have to recognize that the Castro brothers are still alive and in power. Cuba is not a democracy in the way that we understand the term, yet the island's government is recognized and accepted by all our southern neighbors. We need to accept this fact and take a new and different approach. Cuba is not a prison island. It is not a failed state. Unlike the United States, it is a country where its black citizens, half the population, enjoy equal status with whites. Yet, like the United States, it is a country that will welcome change on its own terms. We should recognize and respect that possibility”.

 

Obama would then level some criticism at the hopes for annexation that several US presidents have held since the 19th century, which paved the way for conflicts between both countries. He would compare mistakes such as the 1898 military intervention in Cuba with the US occupation of Iraq, “neither well-planned nor well-executed”. In the case of Cuba, those mistakes “would fuel Castro’s revolutionary struggle half century later”.

 

Then he would announce two important appointments: “Former President Jimmy Carter will become my personal representative for Cuban affairs. He will now immediately fly to Cuba to communicate in the name of my government the decision to lift the travel ban on US citizens and end the economic embargo, and to prepare the ground for my own presidential visit. He will work toward an eventual agreement on the outstanding issues between our two countries. We shall also put on the table the future of our naval base on the island at Guantánamo Bay, whose infamous prison we propose to close”.

At the same time, I have asked Wayne Smith, our oldest former US state department official, to come out from academic retirement to become the chief of our embassy in Havana and work toward the normalization of our diplomatic relations with Cuba. 

In his speech, Obama would announce his plan to fly from Havana to Caracas to greet President Hugo Chávez, welcome his contribution to the peace process in Colombia, and offer US support to him and to President Uribe of Colombia, to advance that process by “calling a halt to our own Plan Colombia, which is a drain on our resources that should be diverted to more socially useful ends”.

 

He would also say: “From Caracas I shall fly to Brasilia to talk to President Lula, and then to Bolivia to greet Evo Morales and express the support of America for the indigenous resistance against white settler rule that is now changing the face of the Americas.

 

According to the speech suggested by Gott, Barack Obama would make those visits to make the North Americans identify with the peoples of Latin America in their capacity to embrace change and reinvent their history, to make sure that the voice of the United States is heard in this great new chorus of liberation.

 

The ultimate inaugural speech to be delivered by the new US president next January is likely to bear no resemblance to the text written by Gott as an exercise in interpreting reality on the basis of the Union’s true interests about its security. Coming out of the White House, a statement like this would bring the head of state face-to-face with unscrupulous reprisals by the less clever corporations and the industrial-military complex.  

(The author of this article is an attorney, retired diplomat, political scientist and continues to teach at the Cuban Foreign Ministry's school for diplomats, ISRI, in Havana, Cuba.)

 

---ooOoo---



 

SI IMPERARA LA RAZÓN

Por Manuel E. Yepe

No tiene desperdicio el discurso que formularía Barak Obama al asumir en enero de 2009 la presidencia, si utilizara el texto que le preparó el veterano periodista e historiador inglés Richard Gott y que apareció en el Guardian, de Londres, el 9 de julio en curso.

Gott explica en su “proyecto” que aunque Irak y la economía del país han sido los temas dominantes en la pugna electoral, América Latina presenta retos importantes que el próximo presidente de los Estados Unidos debe resolver y, a tales efectos, asumiendo que Barack Obama sea el triunfador en las elecciones de noviembre, le recomienda un texto que equivale a una nueva agenda continental.

Obama diría que “en algunas partes del mundo hemos tratado de hacer demasiado, en América Latina hemos hecho demasiado poco. Con nuestra atención puesta en otras partes, las fuerzas antiamericanas han venido a ocupar los vacíos. Hoy tenemos poco que construir en el continente y pocos amigos con quienes hacerlo. Sin embargo, yo prometí cambios, la ciudadanía votó por el cambio y es precisamente cambio lo que pretendo hacer.”

A continuación, Obama recordaría algunos aspectos positivos de sus predecesores en el cargo presidencial, Franklin Roosevelt y John Kennedy. Respecto a este último, diría que la Alianza para el Progreso era un programa de aproximación con América Latina que constituía una “alternativa a la retórica revolucionaria de Castro”.

Luego, Obama reconocería que, “desde entonces, el continente ha cambiado dramáticamente, especialmente en los últimos veinte años, desde el fin de la guerra fría. Latinoamérica ha comenzado a levantarse, a marchar adelante sin asistencia. Ha derrocado las dictaduras militares que sucesivos gobiernos estadounidenses desacertadamente apoyaron. Las democracias dejaron de ser una excepción para convertirse en la regla. No podemos ignorar estos hechos, ni que la bandera de Simón Bolívar ondea de nuevo sobre buena parte del continente, ni la repentina explosión de los pueblos indígenas que se ha expandido desde los países andinos.”

Obama señalaría que el más significativo cambio será en relación con la isla de Cuba, “donde las políticas de mis diez predecesores inmediatos han fracasado en el objetivo de hacer avanzar los intereses de los Estados Unidos. Nos reunimos hoy en el mes del 50º aniversario de la revolución cubana, que triunfó en enero de 1959, y tenemos que reconocer que los hermanos Castro están aún vivos y en el poder. Cuba no es una democracia en el sentido en que nosotros damos al término, pero el gobierno de la Isla es reconocido y aceptado por todos nuestros vecinos sureños. Aceptemos la realidad y asumamos un enfoque nuevo y diferente. Cuba no es una isla prisionera ni es un Estado fracasado. Cuba es, a diferencia de los Estados Unidos, un país cuyos ciudadanos negros, la mitad de la población, disfrutan del mismo status de los blancos. Al igual que los Estados Unidos, es un país que busca cambios, pero en sus propios términos. Debemos reconocer y respetar esto”.

Seguidamente, Obama abordaría críticamente los propósitos de anexión que, desde el siglo XIX albergaron varios presidentes de los EEUU, lo que generó una relación conflictiva entre ambos países. Compararía los errores de la ocupación militar de Cuba en 1898 con los que actualmente comete Estados Unidos en Irak, “mal planeadas y mal ejecutadas". En Cuba, “las secuelas de esos errores nutrieron la lucha revolucionaria de Castro 50 años más tarde”.

Obama anunciaría entonces ciertas importantes designaciones: “El expresidente Jimmy Carter será mi representante personal para asuntos cubanos. Volará inmediatamente a Cuba para comunicar, a nombre de mi gobierno, la decisión de autorizar irrestrictamente los viajes a la Isla de ciudadanos estadounidenses y de poner fin al embargo económico contra Cuba, así como a preparar condiciones para una visita presidencial mía. Trabajará también por lograr un acuerdo acerca entre los principales problemas que afectan las relaciones entre los dos países. En la mesa de discusión estaría el futuro de nuestra base en la bahía de Guantánamo, cuya infamante prisión nos proponemos clausurar.

“También he pedido a Wayne Smith, nuestro más antiguo ex funcionario del Departamento de Estado, que abandone su retiro académico para asumir la jefatura de nuestra Embajada en La Habana y trabajar hacia la normalización de nuestras relaciones diplomáticas con Cuba.”

En su discurso, Obama anunciaría su intención de viajar de La Habana a Caracas para saludar al Presidente Chávez, agradecerle sus aportes al proceso de paz en Colombia y apoyarle, junto a su homólogo colombiano Uribe, en la tarea de avanzar ese proceso, “al que contribuiríamos poniendo fin a nuestro Plan Colombia, que drena nuestras finanzas y cuyos fondos podrán ser destinados a fines sociales más útiles.”

También anunciaría que, de Caracas, viajará a Brasilia, para conversar con el presidente Lula, y luego a Bolivia, para saludar a Evo Morales y expresar por su conducto el apoyo de los Estados Unidos a la resistencia indígena contra los colonos blancos que actualmente está haciendo cambiar el rostro de las Américas.

Según el texto propuesto por el periodista Richard Gott, Barak Obama explicaría que todos esos viajes que habría de emprender tendrían como fin hacer que los norteamericanos se identifiquen con los pueblos de Latinoamérica en su capacidad de abrazar los cambios y remodelar su historia, para lograr que la voz de los Estados Unidos se escuche en el gran nuevo coro de la liberación.

No es muy probable que el discurso inaugural del nuevo presidente estadounidense que tome posesión en enero se parezca algo al texto que elaboró Gott a modo de ejercicio de interpretación de la realidad partiendo de los verdaderos intereses de la Unión relativos a su seguridad. Una declaración de este tipo, salida de la Casa Blanca, la enfrentaría a inescrupulosas represalias de las corporaciones menos astutas y del complejo militar industrial.

Julio, 2008

Caracteres + espacios: 5963 Caracteres – espacios 5018 Palabras: 954




 

Cif America

A new agenda in Latin America

The US has long meddled in the affairs of its southern neighbours. It's time to rectify the mistakes of the past

Though Iraq and the US economy have dominated the US presidential race, Latin America presents important challenges for the next president to solve. Assuming Barack Obama wins the election in November, this is the inaugural speech he should give next January.

My fellow Americans, I turn now to the problems within our own hemisphere. In some parts of the world, in recent years, we have tried to do too much. In Latin America, we have done too little. With our attention focused elsewhere, anti-American forces have moved in to fill the vacuum. Today we have little to build on, and few friends in the continent. Yet I have promised change, US citizens have voted for change, and change is what I intend to bring about.

Two of my Democratic predecessors, at similar defining moments in our history, put forward fresh policies to govern our relationship with Latin America. President Franklin Roosevelt talked of "the policy of the good neighbour" in his inaugural speech of March 1933, and he brought an end to our long period of interventionism. He withdrew our Marines from their occupation of Haiti, and he withdrew most of the clauses of the Platt Amendment of 1901, the colonial document that subjected the Cuban people to eternal American supervision.

A second attempt to improve relations with our southern neighbours was made by President Kennedy in March 1961. He offered what he called "an alliance for progress", a far-reaching programme of reform and development. His words still have a positive echo nearly half a century later:

"We propose to complete the revolution of the Americas, to build a hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living and all can live out their lives in dignity and in freedom. ... Let us once again transform the American continent into a vast crucible of revolutionary ideas and efforts, a tribute to the power of the creative energies of free men and women, an example to all the world that liberty and progress walk hand in hand. Let us once again awaken our American Revolution until it guides the struggles of people everywhere - not with an imperialism of force or fear, but the rule of courage and freedom, and hope for the future of man."

President Kennedy's words evoked huge enthusiasm in Latin America and were seen as an alternative to the revolutionary rhetoric of Castro. Yet the continent has changed dramatically since that time, notably in the 20 years since the end of the cold war. Latin America has begun to stand up, to march forward without assistance. It has thrown off the military dictatorships that successive American governments so misguidedly supported. Democracy is no longer the exception, but the rule. The continent has become that "vast crucible of revolutionary ideas and efforts" of which President Kennedy spoke. We cannot ignore these developments: neither the banner of Simón Bolívar that now flies again over much of the continent, nor the sudden explosion of the indigenous peoples that has spread out from the countries of the Andes.

I now propose a fresh raft of changes in American policy, comparable to those put forward in 1933 and 1961, that will re-emphasise our commitment to peaceful change and development. The most significant change will concern the island of Cuba, where the policies of my 10 immediate predecessors have failed to advance the interests of the United States. We meet today in the month of the 50th anniversary of the original Cuban revolution, in January 1959, and we have to recognise that the Castro brothers are still alive and in power. Cuba is not a democracy in the way that we understand the term, yet the island's government is recognised and accepted by all our southern neighbours. We need to accept this fact and take a new and different approach. Cuba is not a prison island. It is not a failed state. Unlike the United States, it is a country where its black citizens, half the population, enjoy equal status with whites. Yet, like the United States, it is a country that will welcome change on its own terms. We should recognise and respect that possibility.

Long before Castro, indeed before the Platt Amendment, the United States and Cuba had an entwined and often conflictive relationship. Several American presidents in the 19th century had annexationist ambitions. Spanish-owned Cuba and America's southern states grew rich together on the basis of black slavery and white sugar. When the Cuban war of independence broke out 150 years ago, in 1868, tens of thousands of Cubans escaped the fighting to establish their homes and businesses in the United States. Thirty years later, after an accidental explosion that caused the destruction of our battleship, the Maine, in February 1898, US forces joined the Cuban independence struggle, landing between Santiago and Guantánamo and destroying the Spanish fleet.

Our military occupation of Cuba, like our occupation of Iraq, was neither well-planned nor well-executed, and it left bitter memories. Its legacy would fuel Castro's revolutionary struggle half century later, and our own failed attempts to strangle it at birth. This history we need to relearn, and to understand its implications.

Today I announce two important appointments. Former President Jimmy Carter will become my personal representative for Cuban affairs. He paid a visit to Havana in 2002 and is familiar with Cuba's leaders. He made important policy suggestions on that occasion, calling for unrestricted travel to the island by US citizens and for an end to the US economic embargo. He will now immediately fly there again to reiterate his original proposals in the name of my government and to prepare the ground for my own presidential visit. He will work toward an eventual agreement on the outstanding issues between our two countries. We shall also put on the table the future of our naval base on the island at Guantánamo Bay, whose infamous prison we propose to close.

At the same time, I have asked Wayne Smith, our oldest former US state department official with an intimate knowledge of Cuba, to come out from academic retirement to become the chief of our embassy in Havana, the so-called US Interests' Section of the Swiss Embassy. Smith is a former member of the US Marine Corps, and he held this post between 1979 and 1982. He will work toward the normalisation of our diplomatic relations with Cuba.

From Havana, I shall fly to Caracas to greet President Hugo Chávez, to welcome his call for an end to the guerrilla war in Colombia. I shall offer our support to him and to President Uribe of Colombia, with the hope of establishing a peace process that will bring that long conflict to an end. Just as we need to close down our conflict with Cuba, so too we must call a halt to our own Plan Colombia, started so imaginatively by President Clinton, yet now a drain on our resources that should be diverted to more socially useful ends.

From Caracas, I shall fly to Brasilia to talk to President Lula, a towering statesman who has worked with the continent's presidents to achieve common ground on so many distinctive projects. Then I shall fly to La Paz to greet Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia in 500 years, and to him I shall express the support of America for the indigenous resistance against white settler rule that is now changing the face of the Americas. I shall make these visits so that we North Americans may rejoice with the people of Latin America in their capacity to embrace change and to reinvent their history. We must ensure that the voice of the United States, given added colour and richness by our own Hispanic citizens, is heard in this great new chorus of liberation.

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday July 09 2008. It was last updated at 14:00 on July 09 2008.