Jorge G. Castaneda Prompts Barack Obama To, Hopefully And Audaciously, Turn Attention Towards Latin America
13 November 2008, 9:45 AM. By Carlos Posas
When Barack Obama is finally sworn is as America’s 44th President, he’ll have to contend with, among other things, building or rebuilding the U.S.’s relationships with other nations and regions. One region we’re particularly interested in is, of course, Latin America. As Mexico’s former foreign minister, Jorge G. Castaneda, points out, this also happens to be a region which Obama has not often addressed, despite (or because of?) controversial headlines regarding Latin American immigrants, economies and governments:
Latin America may not be high on the president-elect’s list of priorities. He is said to have never visited the region; his statements during the campaign on U.S.-Latin American relations were few and largely bromides; and there are other foreign and domestic policy challenges for him to face.
One issue to which Castaneda is especially hoping Obama draws attention is the United States’ immigration policies and, at the foundation of these, this country’s pervading attitude towards Latino immigrants:
Then comes immigration, which, while it is crucial for a dozen nations in the region, it is a non-issue for others. Obama may decide to postpone comprehensive immigration reform for a while, although he might learn Bush’s lesson: On these matters, what is not done right away, is not done at all.
The Hispanic vote was influential in his victory, however, and he now has the votes in the Senate to get a bill approved when the time comes. But in the meantime, he can certainly order, without any congressional approval, the suspension of the Bush administration’s hateful and destructive, so-called immigration law-enforcement programs in the United States.
And this is what made us, despite our own hopefulness, nervous to vote for a candidate based on something so intangible as “hope.” Do you think Barack Obama will help enact positive changes regarding U.S. / Latin American relations? Or regarding the United States’ perception and treatment of Latinos? He can definitely start by inviting us to the White House to drink Diet Coke and chit chat. Please? Come on.
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Of course, no one in Mexico takes Castenada seriously, nor have they in years.
latinos are not even on his fucking radar people.
While Hope was the central theme of his campaign, he actually ran on a whole host of issues. I know they weren’t expressed much during his stump speeches, likely because most people just wanted to hear inspiring words, which I did too. However, brief researching of the candidate’s positions would have revealed a whole litany of issues with which he had plans to deal, immigration being one of them.
His basic stance on immigration is somewhat like what John McCain had a hand in proposing in the Senate only a year or so ago, if I remember correctly, which was give all immigrants legal status (which in no way means amnesty), make them pay back fines/taxes, and make them go to the end of the line for applying for citizenship. It is a very pragmatic and I’d say humane solution, indeed. He does care. That ’s why the theme of hope was so moving. Peace.