Danay’s Musings

Benjamín Acosta

Thursday, Oct. 15

LATIN AMERICA- Latin America reacted with pleasure to news of the awarding of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama. Latin American leaders and winners of the prize from previous years offered words of support and recognition to the US leader.

Most Central and South American presidents, including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, sent their congratulations to Obama, according to Clarín.

According to Reuters, after thanking his counterparts in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia and other countries for their signs of support by telephone, Obama declared his intention to help Latin America meet its principal challenges: Poverty and drug trafficking.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told ANSA that the award “was recognition for his efforts and for the positive political climate” Obama had created since his arrival at the White House. This should be a “call to other political leaders to move forward with disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation,” Bachelet added.

Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, who won the same prize in 1987, termed the Nobel Committee’s decision to recognize Obama’s efforts as visionary. According to Terra.com, Arias said, “Possibly, the Obama administration’s most import foreign policy theme has been a return to multilateralism and an abandonment of domination by the world powers.”

Obama’s most significant commitments, ABC Color noted, include gradually reducing the US military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, closing the prison at Guantanamo, and nuclear disarmament.

Uribe, one of the United States’ most important allies in South America, said he “greatly supports President Obama’s efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear threat.”

Both Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú (the 1992 winner) and Argentinian Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (the 1980 winner) also congratulated the US leader.

Shortly after learning the news on Oct. 9, Obama, according to Reuters, declared he felt honored to appear alongside persons who were his source of inspiration throughout the “valiant quest for peace.” After thanking the Nobel Committee, he said he would consider the prize a “call for action.”

While most Latin American leaders supported the decision, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez doubted the validity of awarding the prize to President Obama. Chavez, according to Reuters, stated, “The jury put store on his hope for a nuclear arms-free world, forgetting his role in perpetuating his battalions in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

http://infosurhoy.com

Found this one on VivirLatino. I keep trying to stay away from politics, but it’s EVERYWHERE!

This is a very interesting video. Apparently, the illegal immigrants caused 911. Go figure.

I rarely involve political issues on my public blog, but this one ooozes with the need to discuss, simply because it is a propagation of some very misguided views on Hispanics in general. Newt Gingrich reportedly equated speaking Spanish with living in a ghetto, leaving out the hoards of Spanish speakers who live in the suburbs and other non-ghetto areas. I really found this statement to be the epitome of the narrow view some folks still have of Hispanics. “The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. … We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,” Gingrich said on Saturday suring a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women.
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