Chavez, Ortega chide Obama over "stuck" Latam policy

[Zorro]

Source: Reuters

The presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both fierce critics of U.S. policy, on Friday accused President Barack Obama of failing to deliver on his promise to make a new start in ties with Latin America.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, both staunch allies of Cuba's communist leadership, made the criticism while attending a summit in St. Kitts and Nevis of the Venezuelan-backed energy alliance PetroCaribe.

Chavez, who told Obama at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad in April "I want to be your friend," said the new U.S. president was not making good on his public commitment to change the way Washington deals with Latin America.

"Obama should carry out what he said, but it's not happening," Chavez told reporters after the summit concluded.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090613/pl_nm/us_petrocaribe_summit_2

[Thrill]

1. There needs to be two Barack Obamas in order to deal with all the shit

he has too.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Agreed. Apparently, everyone thought their new pony should arrive...

on Jan. 21st. I don't think this president is above criticism, but some of his critics seem to have conveniently forgotten that the man has only been in office for a few months, and the country was deep in the crapper before he took the helm.

[EFerrari]

4. The administration just cut aid to Nicaragua over what they say

were problems in some elections last year. That's Bush's dead enders at work, trying to tank Obama.

So, no, it's not about any pony. It's about 60 million dollars that were arbitrarily cut from a budget last week.

Obama's people better keep an eye on the State Department because it's still more or less the same sewer it was under Bush.

[struggle4progress]

6. I imagine many of the Federal agencies are now cesspools of rightwing Bushbots

[EFerrari]

8. Yep. I see on the crawl that Ven has stepped in to replace the aid

denied to Nicaragua.

[No Elephants]

9. The pony metaphor is more than a tad shopworn on this board, anyway. There are

two pony issues. One is, "For Christmas, I want (long list of items) and a pony."

The other describes the eternal optimist who, seeing a pile of manure, gets all excited because "There must be a pony in here somewhere."

[Toucano]

12. I generally agree, but maybe he needs to delegate better.

If of these decisions, like cutting the aid to Nicaragua, are his decisions then he's got some 'splaining to do.

If not, then he's got some house-cleaning to do.

[DCKit]

3. Dear Hugo and Dan,

Sorry, but I'm up to my ass here.

All My Best,

Barack

[Vidar]

5. Good for Chavez & Ortega.

[cali]

7. Fuck Ortega. He's corrupt and he supports the most anti-woman draconian

anti-choice laws imaginable. Women die because of that filthy corrupt asshole.

[No Elephants]

10. Terrible, but it begs the question of whether Obama's policies are good or not.

[Vidar]

11. Nicaragua is a Catholic nation. Ortega is not out of step in that regard.

As for corruption, who are we to talk? Carter was the last president that was free of that stain