Iranian President To Tour US Foes In Latin America

[Purveyor]

By Anna Pelegri (AFP) – 17 hours ago

CARACAS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under increasing pressure from debilitating Western economic sanctions, Sunday begins a tour of Latin America aimed at shoring up ties with his few remaining allies.

Ahmadinejad will meet fellow US foe and firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on a four-nation trip that coincides with rising international concern over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian leader will arrive in Caracas late Sunday, kicking off a five-day trip that will on Tuesday see him attend the inauguration of the recently re-elected Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega.

Stops in Cuba and Ecuador will round off the tour. All four Latin American countries have frosty ties with the United States and their leaders have in the past four years made numerous visits to Tehran to build up diplomatic and business links while relations with Washington have worsened.

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[JackRiddler]

1. Textbook study in the rhetoric of propaganda.

Is the United States' head really as far up its ass as the AFP (CORRECTION: not "AP&quot reporter imagines, that nations of the world cannot be viewed as anything other than US "foes" or "friends"? They cannot even be identified as independent nations, they can only be referenced in terms of their relation to the US.

Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador are not my "foes" and they are not foes to the American people. Even if they were, it would be wrong to reduce them solely to such a definition, as the writer does.

Is this what we learned about "objectivity" and "neutrality" in reporting, to use that headline instead of the literal description, "Iranian president to tour four Latin American states"? Not sexy enough?

I daresay the mentality that motivates a reporter to write this trash is more "foe" to us all than any of these countries.

[hobbit709]

3. +1000

[Enrique]

5. we have diplomatic relations with all those countries

Cuba is arguably a foe of the United States because we don't have an embassy, but we do have some contacts with them and trade relations.

The other three countries are clearly NOT foes, and this headline is ridiculous.

[Puregonzo1188]

7. 100% Agreed.

[Purveyor]

8. Just for the record, this is a Agence France-Presse article. eom

[JackRiddler]

10. You are absolutely right! A big misreading from me.

You can read rhetoric like this on AP every day, but clearly the French wire service is also not immune. I've corrected it. Sorry.

[RZM]

11. I'll be the Dinner Jacket and his friends view their leaders as foes of the US.

That probably accounts for choosing these particular countries to visit.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Well said. n/t

[William769]

2. I think he should also tour the Bermuda Triangle. NT

[JackRiddler]

4. To see the CIA's money laundry?

[Puregonzo1188]

6. Ecuador is a foe? I mean I know we are blockading Cuba, in defiance of pretty much the entire world,

we are not exactly on good terms for Chavez since we tried to kill him, and I am pretty sure Ortega still remembers the Contras so I guess I could kinda forgive the AP for labeling them foes--but Ecuador?

[treestar]

9. When did we try to kill Chavez?