{"id":55642,"date":"2015-03-23T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55642"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:56","slug":"breaking-news-the-new-york-times-reports-on-what-the-rest-of-the-western-hemisphere-thinks-about-the-conflict-between-the-us-and-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/breaking-news-the-new-york-times-reports-on-what-the-rest-of-the-western-hemisphere-thinks-about-the-conflict-between-the-us-and-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News: The New York Times Reports on What the Rest of the Western Hemisphere Thinks about the Conflict between the US and Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
13 Mar 2015 – <\/em>In a significant change in reporting at The<\/em> New York Times<\/em>, the newspaper yesterday<\/a> became the first major news outlet in the English language media to report on what the rest of the governments in the Western Hemisphere think of U.S. policy toward Venezuela.This is potentially important<\/a> because this part of the story, which has heretofore been ignored, could begin to change many people\u2019s perceptions of what is behind the problems in U.S.-Venezuelan relations, if other journalists begin to report on it. The Obama administration is more isolated in Latin America than even George W. Bush was, but hardly anyone who depends on the major hemispheric media would know that, because the point of view of governments other than the U.S. is not reported.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> article contains this very succinct and eloquent comment on the new U.S. sanctions against Venezuela from Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ought to be a joke in bad taste that reminds us of the darkest hours of our America, when we received invasions and dictatorships imposed by the imperialists,\u201d Mr. Correa wrote. \u201cCan\u2019t they understand that Latin America has changed?\u201d<\/p>\n

The last line really sums up the situation: They really don\u2019t understand that Latin America has changed.\u00a0 One can follow all the foreign policy debates in Washington about Latin America, in the media or in journals such as Foreign Affairs<\/em>, and there really is almost no acknowledgment of the new reality. In this sense the discussion of hemispheric relations is different from most other areas of U.S. foreign policy, e.g., Afghanistan, Iraq, even Israel and Palestine \u2013 where there is at least some debate that reaches the intelligentsia and the public. (The new Cold War with Russia is perhaps exceptional in the pervasiveness of a sheep-like mentality and uniformity of thinking \u2013 as Russia expert Stephen Cohen of Princeton has pointed out<\/a> reminiscent of the 1950s; but it remains to be seen how long this can last, and even in this robust display of groupthink there is a small smattering<\/a> of exceptions that break through.)<\/p>\n

Latin America really has changed, drastically, and Correa\u2019s view represents the vast majority of governments in the region, even if some are more diplomatic in their expression of it. This can be seen in the strong statements criticizing U.S. actions from regional organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which includes every country in the hemisphere except the U.S. and Canada; and UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations). (The Times<\/em> article mentioned that these two organizations \u201cissued statements expressing concern,\u201d although that was a bit of an understatement.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More generally, the vast majority of Latin American governments now have a foreign policy independent of Washington, which has never been true before the 21st<\/sup> century; and they are also much more independent of Washington in their economic policies.\u00a0 As recently as 2002, for example, the U.S. was able to exert a major influence on the economic policy of even the region\u2019s largest economy, Brazil, through the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s latest move is seen throughout the region as so outrageous and threatening that it will likely be reversed, eventually, under pressure from Latin American governments. That is what happened<\/a> in April 2013, when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry refused to recognize the results of Venezuela\u2019s presidential election, even though there was no doubt<\/a> about the outcome<\/a>. At first, Washington was able to get OAS Secretary General Jos\u00e9 Miguel Insulza, and the right-wing government in Spain, to join in refusing to recognize the result; but then these two allies gave in under pressure, and Kerry was left completely alone, whereupon Washington recognized the results.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Go to Original \u2013 cepr.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Mar 2015 – In a significant change in reporting at The New York Times, the newspaper yesterday became the first major news outlet in the English language media to report on what the rest of the governments in the Western Hemisphere think of U.S. policy toward Venezuela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}