Ibero-America, Caribbean Lined Up Against Obama at Summit of the Americas

Barack Obama had planned to use the Seventh Summit of the Americas, taking place today in Panama, to showcase a key element of the “legacy” he is said to be fashioning: U.S. rapprochement with Cuba, and Cuba’s participation in an inter-American conference for the first time since 1962, to be crowned with a brief meeting and handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro.

Instead, Obama went into the summit with the entirety of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and all of the continent’s regional organizations and allies—Unasur (Union of South American Nations), Celac (Commission of Latin American and Caribbean States), Alba (Alliance of Bolivarian States of the Americas), Petro Caribe, and the G77 + China—lined up against the United States. All of Ibero-America, including even “staunch allies” like Colombia, had denounced Obama’s insane March 9 Executive Order (EO) declaring Venezuela a “grave national security threat to the United States,” and the subsequent imposition of sanctions, as a gross intervention into Venezuela’s internal affairs, a violation of its sovereignty, and a threat to regional stability.

The continental response reflects Ibero-America’s and the Caribbean nations’ recognition that there is “another game in town,”—the BRICS global development paradigm—which frees them to challenge Obama’s imperial bludgeoning.

Leading into the summit, Obama tried to give the impression that he was “moderating” his stance. Secretary of State John Kerry sent State Department officer Tom Shannon to Caracas to meet with President Nicolas Maduro and Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on April 7. Shannon is a respected, and decent career diplomat, but according to Argentina’s Pagina 12, the meeting “didn’t end well.” There was no response to Rodriguez’s demand that the U.S. rescind the EO and lift the sanctions.

Before leaving Washington, in an interview with Spanish news service EFE, Obama said he didn’t believe “that Venezuela poses a threat to the United States,” which many media spun as a sign of the U.S. backtracking. But instead of rescinding the EO, Obama went on to instruct Ibero-American nations to join with him in denouncing the “erosion of human rights” in Venezuela.

There was no evidence of a “softer” U.S. position at the April 9 foreign ministers meeting in Panama, to discuss the summit’s final declaration. At its conclusion, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Hector Timerman announced there would be no final declaration due to U.S. and Canadian opposition to proposed articles which called for expanding populations’ social rights, and granting the state a greater role in protecting these rights, in such areas as health, education, and labor.