Obama and Cristina had a nice chat today

[rabs]

Obama called Cristina late this afternoon. They talked for 30 minutes, mostly about the effects of the global economic crisis, according to Telam. They both will be at the G-20 summit early next month in London.

Suspect that Obama was told by State Department to make nice with Cristina following the flap created by the CIA's Panetta's idiotic remarks (after Panetta met with Colombia's Santos) that Argentina could be "de-establized" by global crisis.

(Spanish)
http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=138419&id=280986&dis=1&sec=1

[Judi Lynn]

1. It sounds as if President Obama is really working at touching bases correctly,

treating his conversations respectfully, instead of the old blowing hot air routine _Bush used to do. Won't it be a relief to know we can count on him not to loom up behind people sitting at the table and start giving them backrubs? Or giving them nicknames? Or rubbing their heads?

Didn't know they were anticipating TWO G-20 summits, with the other one in Trinidad,Tobago.....

Hope he's not going to do what _Bush did in trying to go from President to President, trying to arm twist them into distancing from Venezuela. If he does try it, it's so doubtful he'll get anywhere, and WILL be corrected by any of them. Even Calderón stood his ground when he tried to bully him on Chavez. That was unexpected, considering _Bush threw a LOT of support behind him for his election.

The suspense is killing us, trying to figure out if there's a chance he's going to go the right direction concerning Latin America. He can't get it done, if he chooses to shun the leftists, in a region going LEFT.

Thanks, rabs.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Obama has more amends to make to Argentina, if he really intends peaceful relations.

How about an apology for that shit the Bushbot US attorney in Miami pulled, off the Bushwhack-CIA "suitcase full of money" caper? Fernandez was furious about that goddamned lie. I hope she gave Obama an earful about it. Then there was the Big Ag "strike." I've long suspected the Bushwhack CIA of instigating that one, in yet another nauseating destabilization war.

When the Bushwhacks issued their dictate to South American leaders that they must "isolate Chavez," Fernandez's husband, Nester Kirchner, replied, "But he's my brother!" But I'll bet that what Fernandez replied was something stronger (like, "Fuck off, assholes!"). I was impressed with her at the Rio Group meeting about the US (Bushwhack)/Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador--which dashed all of their hopes for a peaceful settlement of Colombia's 40+ year civil war any time soon. She was as furious at Colombia's "little dictator" president, Uribe, as Rafael Correa was, and I swear she would have run Uribe through, if she'd had a sword in her hand. That Rio Group meeting was a seminal moment for South America. That's when it all came together, as to their unity in dealing with Bushwhack threats and aggression.

However, though the upshot was Colombia's promise not to invade other South American countries again, Defense Minister Santos (who wants to be dictator himself) the other day asserted that Colombia's military has the right to invade Venezuela in pursuit of FARC guerrillas. I found that rather worrisome--both as to Santos' ambitions to head a military dictatorship in Colombia, and who he might be allied with in destroying Colombia's vestiges of civilian control (out of power Bushwhacks like Rumsfeld). Wouldn't it be grand if South America's truly elected, truly democratic leaders had an ally in Obama, as to curtailing Colombia's fascists, ending the death squads, and achieving a peaceful end to the civil war--and ending the nefarious Bushwhack/Colombia connection as to plotting against the leftist democracies? That is what they all want, but it is very rare in US history that the people of South America have had such an ally in the White House. FDR. JFK. That's about it. (Jimmy Carter probably had good intentions, but he had little control over the CIA, the School of the Americas or the US military--and, actually, JFK had none, in the end. The fuckers shot him for trying to make peace with Cuba and Russia*.)

---------------

*(Strongly recommended: "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters," by James Douglass. God what a great and life-changing book. Despite all we know about our secret government, it is still searing to read what the fuckers did and why, back then. It is a wound that our country really, really needs to deal with. And maybe the way South America has been dealing with these kind of persistent wounds will show us a path.)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Seeing your reference to Jimmy Carter reminded me to do a quick google, to find something

which distinguishes him from the others regarding Latin America. I remembered reading he had cut funding when he learned about the death squads. Here's a quick summary from just one source:

When President Jimmy Carter attached human rights requirements to US aid in 1977, Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, and Argentina refused to accept it; the next year the US banned arms sales to Guatemala. In 1982 General Rios Montt took power, and the World Council of Churches reported that the government had killed more than 9,000 people in five months. Under President Ronald Reagan in 1983 the US resumed shipping military supplies to Guatemala. Many changes of government occurred in the next few years, and the Church continued to complain of human rights abuses.

From: Resisting Wars in Central America

More:
http://www.san.beck.org/GPJ30-CentralAmerica.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Just remember something I wanted to mention after reading your comments on the farmers' strike.

It occurred to me, too, that it had to be very likely there was a US hand behind that business, too. It started almost immediately after her election, as if they were just waiting for her. Why didn't they try anything on her husband, one wonders.

I think it was because he had so much popular support, and the life history of having suffered torture and imprisonment at the hands of the military dictatorship, and had made his own Presidential history by getting Argentina out of the ditch it was in when he was elected. They probably knew they'd get NOWHERE if they tried it on him, but they might succeed with a newcomer without a lot of experience.

The constant agitation sounded too much like the people in the Half Crescent in Bolivia, and the jackasses in Ecuador, and in Zulia in Venezuela.
I believe you're right on this. We KNOW _Bush intended to make trouble for her with that stupid briefcase which she didn't need, of course, since she was so high in the polls WITHOUT it already. She didn't NEED any assistance. Had Chavez been crooked and done it, it would have been an empty gesture, since it wouldn't have helped anything!