Obama

President Barack Obama was re-elected yesterday by defeating the Republican contender, Mitt Romney, in an election that remained at odds until the last minute. Its results will not mean any change in relations between the U.S. and Latin America — relations based on unilateralism and indifference.

Obama was able to win with the votes of minorities — including, in a prominent manner, Hispanics — but there is still no sign that the president will change his gray policy toward the continent, just like Gov. Romney wouldn’t have either, had the electoral results been reversed.

The U.S. election that ended with Obama’s victory and the confirmation of the Democratic Party’s majority in the Senate and the Republicans’ in the House of Representatives was undoubtedly exemplary and should serve as a reference for the holding of elections in the Dominican Republic, which is always covered by irregularities.

It highlights the growing participation of the Hispanic community in the U.S. electoral process, to the point that the votes of millions of citizens from Latin America literally decided Obama’s victory, consecrated as the first black president of the United States.

To give you an idea of the closeness of that race, it must be said that even on the eve of voting, Obama phoned undecided voters from Chicago, and Romney led rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania in an attempt to gain in the polls.

Among the biggest challenges Obama will face in his second term will be averting the worst economic crisis in 80 years; restoring political and trade relations with China and Russia; ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; easing tensions in Syria, Libya, the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East; and, above all, trying to reunify the United States itself.

The results of yesterday’s election may be important for the interests of the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, Europe, Russia and China, but not for Latin America, a region that was never mentioned by President Obama during his 18 months of campaigning and barely for 10 seconds by Romney.

The Dominican Republic should not hold out hope that there will be any positive change in its relations with Washington, marked by a steep trade deficit that has worsened with the putting into force of the Free Trade Treaty (DRCAFTA) and the prevalence of non-tariff barriers to domestic exports to that market. Still, congratulations to President Obama.