The presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both fierce critics of US policy, on Friday accused US President Barack Obama of failing to deliver on his promise to make a new start in ties with Latin America.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, both staunch allies of Cuba’s communist leadership, made the criticism while attending a summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis of the Venezuelan-backed energy alliance PetroCaribe.
Chavez, who told Obama at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April “I want to be your friend,” said the new US president was not making good on his public commitment to change the way Washington deals with Latin America.
PHOTO: EPA
“Obama should carry out what he said, but it’s not happening,” Chavez told reporters after the summit concluded.
Chavez, whose oil-exporting country remains a leading energy supplier to the US, was a virulent critic of what he called the “imperialist” policies of Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.
“It’s the same old empire. Let’s hope that Obama has the courage, the capacity and the support to dismantle that empire,” Chavez said.
He also rejected US allegations that his government was limiting freedom of expression by pursuing media critics, calling this view “a great cynicism.”
Earlier, Ortega accused Obama’s administration of being “stuck in the past” in its policies toward his country and Cuba.
Ortega said Obama, despite displaying good intentions, appeared to be repeating hostile policies established by his predecessors.
“We’ve all recognized in President Obama a man of good intentions, but he’s caught in a system which by its own nature is expansionist, interventionist,” Ortega said.
He criticized the US for canceling more than US$60 million in assistance to Nicaragua this week.
The Millennium Challenge, a US taxpayer-funded operation set up by Bush to fight poverty in developing nations, said it took the decision because of problems in local elections last year in Nicaragua.
“President Obama is repeating Reagan’s policy by cutting aid to Nicaragua,” Ortega said.
Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla and Cold War-era foe of the US, also criticized the White House for maintaining a 47-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba, although it has eased the sanctions.
Obama has offered a “new beginning” in relations with Cuba, but has called on its leaders to reciprocate by freeing detained dissidents and opening up political freedoms.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
RSS