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February 04, 2005
An update to the Monroe Doctrine (Latin American version)
An update to the Monroe Doctrine (Latin American version)
President Bush's inaugural address has been seen by some as a reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine. Not surprisingly there were more mentions of it in the 450 newspapers indexed by Google News Mexico than in the 4500 media sites indexed by the US version of the same service.
Antonio Caballero from Colombia defends the idea in a very measured tone. He recognizes three main traditions in US foreign policy: one of freedom, liberation and human rights (religious freedom, abolition of slavery, Marshall Plan, etc.); one of conquest, extermination of natives, slavery, and aggression (Mexico, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Vietnam etc.).
The third tradition, according to Caballero, consists in "justifying the horrors of the second (imperial and repressive) thanks to the achievements and promises of the first (liberating and in defense of rights)."
A esas dos tradiciones norteamericanas hay que sumar una tercera, que consiste en justificar los horrores de la segunda (la imperial y represiva) por los logros o promesas de la primera (la libertadora y de defensa de los derechos).
During the lat four years, President Bush has enacted the second tradition and spoken according to the third, according to this column published in the weekly Semana.
In the Mexican daily El Universal Pablo Marentes links Bushes speech, which he sees as an update to the Monroe Doctrine, to an unfriendly travel advisory from the State Department about the dangers of Traveling to Mexico. It was published a week after the speech, and was reinforced by a letter about the same issue sent to the Mexican Foreign Minister by the US ambassador. He sees this as new threats against his country's sovereignty.
Caballero is very balanced. Marentes is more aggressive, but his main objective is to embarrass his own government. Both appear to express gut reactions based on a good knowledge of history as seen south of the Rio Grande.
Posted February 4, 2005 10:01 PM
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