Obama and Latin America

The recent declaration of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff of the United States, Mike Mullen, regarding the Mexican advisability to adopt a plan of “military assistance” should be seen as one more attempt of political control disguised as combating the trafficking of narcotics. This is similar to the imposition at the end of the past century on Colombia, whose results have been established as highly.

The simultaneity of some acts should be pointed out: first, the reduction of the funds of the Merida Initiative, which has slowly lowered the initially offered $450 million dollars to $300 (after rejection of national supervision and conditioning). Now, with a foreseeable decline of perhaps as much as $100 million, the saving tool has diminished almost 50 percent in the period from George W. Bush to that of Barack Obama.

Not even the peso has devalued that quickly. How can there not be money for a “civil” incentive if there would be for a hidden form of open military intervention?

On the other hand, and as a second relevant point, the preceding generous offer of the release of the beneficent marines emerged when Felipe Calderon had made perhaps the most energetic declaration known to the American government:

“Drug trafficking in the United States -he has said to the French press- also obeys a phenomenon of corruption of American authorities. I want to know how many American authorities have been brought to justice for this…the United States has a grave responsibility…it is not exclusively a Mexican problem, it is a common problem that also has to be confronted in common between the United States and Mexico.

“The major power given to organized crime by weapons comes from the United States. Since 2006 we have confiscated 27,000 weapons; among them are missile launchers and as many as 2,500 grenades, and we have discovered uniforms and weapons of the United States military…

“I have spoken with Obama about this and I have his word and believe in it because he is a sincere man. We are observing a clearer solution, more decided, in agreement with the magnitude of the problem that we are confronting”, declared the leader of Mexico.

But there is other information to contemplate, first being the approach of Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, before attempting to militarize the southern border of the state of Texas.

“The government thinks that from the Mexican side we have sufficient ability and deployment of forces,” he said, in an effort to make sending troops north of the city of Juarez unnecessary.

Under these conditions it would be worth the pain to know if Mexico and Latin America truthfully hope for a profound change in their relationship with the United States. The president has said how much he believes in the sincerity and word of Barack Obama, but no one knew until now if these traits could confront the prevailing “realpolitik” in the United States.

The military conditions of American history are a necessary element of consideration; for example, the acceptance of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a former cabinet member in the Bush administration, in the new cabinet of the so-called “government of hope.”

Perhaps this is why a few days ago Gates said, “I see the United States supplying help to Mexico in areas such as training, resources, and abilities of vigilance and espionage.”

This is why the Latin American Circle for International Studies (CLAEI) has recently questioned the occurrence of changes towards the region with Obama. They believe yes, but not many:

“The analysts of the CLAEI consider even today that there is not any indication that Obama thinks about moving forward with the strategy of establishing military bases or “points of support” of security in the western hemisphere, under the pretext of the struggle against terrorism and organized crime, particularly drug trafficking.

“Consequently, it is foreseeable that the Marines Fourth Fleet might be widened-or at least it is intended to be widened- to include nuclear arms in its arsenals, in turn violating in spirit and letter the Tlatelolco Treaty.

“It is appropriate to highlight that from the highest circles of the American industrial-military complex privileged information has been filtered in recent days about its interests to promote extensive collaboration with Latin American and Caribbean countries. This is not is any way coincidental, given that in the United States today there exists a super production of conventional weapons that, given their characteristics, cannot find a market except in Latin America.”