Clinton's Latin American clangers

[Derechos]

Hillary Clinton's Latin America tour is turning out to be about as successful as George W Bush's visit in 2005, when he ended up leaving Argentina a day ahead of schedule just to get the hell out of town. The main difference is that she is not being greeted with protests and riots. For that she can thank the positive media image that her boss, President Obama, has managed to maintain in the region, despite his continuation of his predecessor's policies.

But she has been even more diplomatically clumsy that Bush, who at least recognised that there were serious problems and knew what not to say. "The Honduras crisis has been managed to a successful conclusion," Clinton said in Buenos Aires, adding that "it was done without violence."

This is rubbing salt into her hosts' wounds, as they see the military overthrow of President Mel Zelaya last June, and subsequent efforts by the US to legitimise the dictatorship there as not only a failure but a threat to democracy throughout the region.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/mar/05/hillary-clinton-latin-america

I don't know how to delete the second post.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Absolutely great article. Hope Sec. Clinton will do the right thing & RESPECT what she has heard

during her trip, not ignore it, nor deny it later.

So glad Lula da Silva was unambiguous AGAIN in refusing to be bullied into turning his back on nis friend, the elected President of Venezuela. It's a deep shame she ever tried to repeat that _Bush league bullying, rather than acting like a civilized person, someone worthy of her position.

Often a moderator will remove a duplicate post if you catch the duplicate within an hour (you can change the post within an hour of originally posting) and remove the subject line and write anything like "Dupe" or "duplicate, please delete" or anything similar to explain it's an unwanted 2nd original post.

Thanks for posting the Weisbrot article.

[protocol rv]

2. Typical

Mrs Clinton is following the line laid out for her when she had to mention Iran to her Brazilian hosts - she has to please the Israel lobby. As for the other comments she made, it shows she has the job due to her political power, not her diplomacy. She didn't even bother to wait for translation when she was in Uruguay, and the bit in Chile giving a phone to the President was really dumb. Typical American arrogance.