While the South coalesces around progressive alternatives the North confirms its place in the Past
May 23 was a day of contrasts two summits and one pronouncement - the contrast could not be starker.
Meeting in Brazil's capital city of Brasilia the heads of state from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela signed an agreement to set up a new alliance, UNASUR, the Association of South American Nations.
The Alliances’ objectives are to boost regional and economic integration while developing the political cohesion necessary to underpin sustainable development and work on seeking solutions to problems that affect the region such as poverty and social inequality.
Sao Paulo Forum Articulates Goals
Over at the Montevideo at the 14th Summit of Sao Paulo Forum (FSP) 844 delegates from 35 countries, approved a final declaration, stating goals, strategies progressives in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rejecting the failed neoliberal experiments of the past the participants endorsed approaches that recognise each country’s characteristics, while "contributing to development, sovereignty
and progress of our peoples."Silence is dishonesty
Meanwhile back in the past and despite all the rhetoric Barack Obama has confirmed his solidarity, not with the peoples of the South, in their struggle to find new and innovative ways to address the problems of their nations but with the US political elite.
As we noted in our last post a fondness for quoting José Martí is no substitute for addressing the real issues. In a reflection on Obamas’ speech, Fidel observes that to remain silent on Obamas floundering in the quagmire of the past would be dishonest
Despite Obama being, from a “social and human points of view the most progressive candidate” in the US presidential race Fidel observed that his speech to the Cuban American National Foundation raises a number of questions which honesty requires being asked.
Among them the ethics of torture and state terrorism, the obscenity of investing millions in the military industrial complex and continued theft of the best scientific and intellectual minds in poor countries All of which are legacies of those old, failed policies.
Like Fidel, we do not expect an answer.
More on Obama over at Politico LA
