U.S Presidential Campaign and Policy Towards Cuba nd Venezuela

The U.S Presidential Campaign and Policy Towards Cuba and Venezuela



by Cort Greene

Aug. 28, 2007



" We must not lose sight of our fundamental goal: freedom a-la Miami in Cuba. At the same time, we should be pragmatic in our approach and clear sighted about the effects of our policies. We all know the power and results of the freedom and opportunity that America has both embodied and advanced in Latin America. If deployed wisely through tough immigration laws, those ideals will have as transformative effect on Cubans today, attracting their most skilled workers, professionals and athletes to make the U.S. even greater."

Barack Obama - Straight Talk on Cuba



While the U.S. presidential campaigns are starting earlier with each election cycle and this one seems to be going on forever, a major focus of U.S. imperialism has been which of the bourgeois candidates offers the most politically expedient approach to stopping the shinning example that Cuba and Venezuela have shown to both the emerging revolutionary situations in Latin America and to the world.



Months ago John McCain and Rudy Guiliani seemed to be the only ones speaking about these countries with their verbal assaults. McCain when he started his " Stop the Dictators of Latin America " website which states " We have seen this story before. Hugo Chavez , like Fidel Castro before him embraces authoritarianism and aggression, statist economic polices... a time worn recipe for disaster!"



Rudy Guiliani, a former mayor of New York City and the darling of the " Homeland Security " crowd and a partner in a Houston law firm that represents U.S. based Citgo Petrolum a company who is owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, said at a speech to Hispanic small business leaders that Chavez's social programs and those of Cuban leader Fidel Castro " keep people in poverty" and keep people dependent." later in the day while addressing the Latino Coalition's economic summit, he stated that the Chavez government took over the last privately run oil fields and that Hugo Chavez is acting against the interests of the United States and he was the most outspoken on how dangerous " I think he is".



Then weeks ago the attacks on Cuba and Venezuela started to reach a fever pitch at the CNN -You Tube debate among the Democrats at the Citadel Military College, one of the elite training schools for the U.S . murder machine, when a question posed from a person who sent in a video and who happened to be in the audience asked whether any of them would hold talks within the first year of their administrations with a number of countries being mentioned, including Cuba and Venezuela " in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries."



Hillary Clinton gave an infactic " no" because she was concerned of being used for " propaganda purposes" or by "the making of matters worse" and " were not going just have our president meet with Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez ".

John Edwards said maybe, well sort of , but with certain conditions

Many who consider themselves liberals, progressives or " on the left" and even supporters of these revolutions and who have been yearning for a change in U.S. foreign policy from Iraq to Cuba and Venezuela were encouraged when Barack Obama said " yes" and " thought it was a disgrace that we have not spoken with them."

Then the name calling started and with each one accusing the other of being ' irresponsible and frankly naive" and even the next day Mitt Romny jumped into the fray saying the same things about all the Democrats.



But does Obama really represent a change in U.S. imperialist policy positions when he calls for bilateral talks, trade, easing travel restrictions and such with a velvet boxing glove towards Cuba while calling all options to be open when dealing with Iran and even saying that the nuclear option was to be considered in order to get to Bin Laden in Pakistan ?



Of course the answer is no. This is a cynical charade to get votes by the same man who voted for re-authorizing the Patriot Act, Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State and even for censuring Venezuela for not renewing the broadcast license of the coup-plotting and CIA backed RCTV television station. We didn't see him speaking out against the coup against the democratically elected Hugo Chavez or the "4th generational warfare" now being conducted against the countries of Cuba and Venezuela.



In his book " The Audacity of Hope " which is the vision for his campaign, he writes that it is wrong for left leaning populists to resist America's efforts to expand its hegemony or reject the ideas of the " free market and liberal democracy" and to follow their own paths to development which will only worsen the situation of the global poor.



Does this really sound any diferent than what John McCain says?



I guess many of our good friends forget how it was Richard Nixon who opened up China along with its Stalinist leadership to capitalist restoration and this is the same ploy that Barack Obama wants to use against Cuba and to halt the advancement of the revolutions now taking place in Latin America.



At a time when there is not one stable regime from Alaska to the Tierra de Fuego we should be building solidarity and support with the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions and start learning from their experiences by creating our own grassroots and working class or a Labor party based on a socialist program and policies and certainly not by supporting any of the candidates of the "capitalist" Democratic and Republican parties.



This is just one humans opinion and I leave you with this quote from a North American socialist from long ago.



" I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want and get it."

Eugene Debs