Chavez, Ortega
Chide Obama Over "Stuck" Latam Policy
By Pascal
Fletcher
Basseterr, St. Kitts (Reuters) - The
presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both
fierce critics of U.S. policy, on Friday
accused President Barack Obama of failing to
deliver on his promise to make a new start
in ties with Latin America.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's
Daniel Ortega, both staunch allies of Cuba's
communist leadership, made the criticism
while attending a summit in St. 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 U.S. president
was not making good on his public commitment
to change the way Washington deals with
Latin America.
"Obama should carry out what he said, but
it's not happening," Chavez told reporters
after the summit concluded.
The Venezuelan president, whose
oil-exporting country remains a leading
energy supplier to the United States, 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 U.S. allegations that
his government was limiting freedom of
expression by pursuing media critics,
calling this view "a great cynicism."
"If there's no respect, there's nothing," he
said.
Earlier, Nicaragua's leftist leader, Ortega,
accused Obama's administration of being
"stuck in the past" in its policies toward
his country and Cuba.
Nicaragua and Cuba belong to the 18-nation
PetroCaribe alliance created by Chavez in
2005 that groups OPEC member Venezuela with
oil-importing Caribbean and Central America
states, allowing them to buy Venezuelan oil
on easier terms.
While most PetroCaribe leaders present used
the one-day meeting in St. Kitts to praise
Venezuela's oil support for the economic and
social development of their countries,
Ortega made a point of attacking U.S.
strategy in Latin America.
'GOOD INTENTIONS'
He said Obama, despite displaying good
intentions, appeared to be repeating hostile
policies established by predecessors like
Bush and Ronald Reagan toward regional
governments Washington disapproved of,
including Nicaragua and Cuba.
"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 United States for
canceling more than $60 million in
assistance to Nicaragua this week.
The Millennium Challenge Corp, a U.S.
taxpayer-funded operation set up by former
President 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 United States, first
ruled Nicaragua after taking power in a 1979
leftist Sandinista revolution. He won a 2006
election to return to rule again.
Ortega also criticized the Obama
administration for maintaining a 47-year-old
U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, although
Obama has eased some aspects of the
sanctions.
"They are stuck in the past," the Nicaraguan
leader said.
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.
He has made clear he intends to keep the
embargo in place until Havana shows clear
signs of making reforms.
Cuban President Raul Castro, who has said he
is ready to talk with Washington, did not
attend the PetroCaribe summit.
Caribbean leaders, whose small states
receive significant economic relief through
the deferred and low-interest payment terms
they enjoy for their oil purchases under
PetroCaribe, were unanimous in their praise
of the energy alliance.
"There is no devil in PetroCaribe," said
Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
Earlier, Chavez vowed to strengthen
PetroCaribe, despite the decline in oil
prices over the last year.
The drop has squeezed the income of
Venezuela, South America's largest oil
producer, with a declared output of just
over 3 million barrels per day (bpd). It
supplies 121,000 bpd to PetroCaribe states
and 92,000 bpd separately to Cuba. |
