Barack Obama

Today we turn to talk of the consecration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the U.S. Obama has in his favor a greatly attractive personality, “heartfelt” and believable oratory and the hope that a black man will be the protagonist of the change Americans want. Finally, it is hoped that the fresh arrival to the White House turns a gray page in American history: that of George W. Bush.

The new president has before him problems of great magnitude that need to be treated. First, those of his country. On Obama has fallen an inheritance so heavy that he cannot take inventory comfortably, but instead must face it with vigor and foresight.

Very similar was the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who successfully attacked the throes of the great depression of the 30s and launched the political economy and social stimulus of the “New Deal.” The possible and necessary adjustments to the financial system will occupy a great part of the attention of the multicolored cabinet of the president.

With the same decisiveness he will have to deal with the dangerous terrorist, an objective as broad as the world, as fundamentalism and its terrorist sequence threatens from every corner of the earth.

Given the undeniable influence of the U.S. around the world, foreign policy will be a permanent challenge. In order of immediacy, he cannot escape the Israeli-Palestinian trap. The Jewish community in the U.S. won’t let him. Iraq and Afghanistan follow, without stopping to give attention to the nuclear preparations of Iran. Owing to the fact that my available space is short, I will pass over the post-communist Russia as well as so-called “emerging” powers that are beginning to flourish.

In reference to the European Union, we must agree that while there is no understanding the history of the U.S. without Europe, neither must we believe that there are not differences between both worlds. Conservative American politics that restrict European imports, such that it would seem to be on the plans of the new president, would be seen badly in the old world, which today faces a tough recession.

And Latin America? Obama begins in Mexico, a hot border for the “wet backs” and for the fearsome contagion of the drug gangs, more than for the commercial exchange that should not be forgotten either.

With respect to the other Latin American countries, the politics of the State Department, headed by Hillary Clinton, will continue differentiating between friends and less than friends. In this last collective are included the “Bolivarian” countries, which include Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and maybe also El Salvador where an ex-guerilla has gotten great results in the Sunday election. Of Cuba, it is possible that there will be some bonding gestures, more symbolic than innovative, such as facilitating the trips of family members and some members of the American press to the island, the remission of immigrants, etc. But not yet the complete suspension of the embargo. With respect to relations with Bolivia, much will depend on Sir Evo coming down from his militant anti-Americanism and opening his eyes to the disadvantages that this obsession creates for our country.

*José Gramunt de Moragas, S.J