[Marxism] WaPo: "Race a Dominant Theme at Summit....Drawing Leaders Closer"

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/18/AR2009041801
826.html

Race a Dominant Theme at Summit
Subject Seen as Drawing Leaders Closer
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 19, 2009 

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 18 -- In presenting himself at a
summit here as an equal partner to Latin America, President Obama is drawing
on his race as evidence of U.S. social progress and of his own affinity for
the region's poor.

Race occupies a far larger and more troubled place in Latin American
politics than it does in Europe, where Obama rarely mentioned his ethnic
background this month during his first overseas trip as president.

He is doing so more often here at the Summit of the Americas, in part to
push an agenda that, among other issues, seeks to address the region's
income disparity between rich and poor, the widest in the world.

In talking about his race and the backgrounds of his counterparts, Obama is
associating himself more closely than his predecessors did with Latin
America's indigenous, black and mixed-race underclass, which has long
identified the United States with economic policies that benefit the elite
of European descent far more than them.

The approach has helped to reduce, though not eliminate, the expected
political strife between Obama and such populist leaders as Venezuela's Hugo
Chávez and Bolivia's Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of his
country.

Those men explicitly mentioned Obama's race in a closed-door meeting
Saturday as a sign that U.S. policy toward the region may change, according
to several U.S. and Latin American officials who attended.

President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, a former union leader and
political prisoner, and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, one of the
hemisphere's two elected female leaders, said in a separate private meeting
Saturday that the region's diversity should be more fully appreciated with
the presence of the first black U.S. president.

"The president put it on the table very explicitly" at the opening ceremony,
said a senior Obama administration official who participates in closed-door
meetings with the president. "Inequity in this hemisphere is extreme, and a
hemisphere blessed with a lot of resources should not be suffering the way
it is. Race is a part of that in many cases."

'Part of Who He Is'

The meeting rooms and hallways of the seaside hotel where the summit is
taking place showcase an array of ethnicities -- black delegations of the
Caribbean; indigenous representatives of some Andean nations; whites, blacks
and Latinos from the United States and Canada.

In his opening speech, Obama said, "We have to stand up against any force
that separates any of our people from that story of liberty -- whether it's
crushing poverty or corrosive corruption; social exclusion or persistent
racism or discrimination.

"Here in this room, and on this dais, we see the diversity of the Americas,"
Obama said. "Every one of our nations has a right to follow its own path."

In recent decades, the left represented by Chávez, Morales and Nicaragua's
Daniel Ortega, who delivered a speech highly critical of the United States
on opening night, has been lifted by an anti-American populism held most
strongly by indigenous and mixed-race populations.

"As you go around the globe, there are many different ways of saying it and
a different need to say it, but it follows him internationally wherever he
goes," said James L. Jones, Obama's national security adviser, who also
accompanied the president on his European trip.

"It is part of who he is," said Jones, referring to Obama's race. "It may
not be fair in a way, carrying the hopes of millions of other people from
around the world. And in a few years his words will be measured against his
achievements, and that will be the acid test."

Latin America's Wounds

In a meeting Saturday with leaders of UNASUR, an association of South
America's 12 countries, Obama spoke for less than a minute before saying he
preferred to listen, said a senior Latin American diplomat in the room.

Chávez and Morales each mentioned Obama's race in their remarks -- Chávez as
a sign that he might more closely identify with the region's poor, Morales
in more skeptical tones. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration from his country last year.

"Chávez said explicitly, here we have a black president," said a Canadian
official who attended the meeting but was not authorized to discuss the
closed-door event.

"Morales said to [Obama], 'I can see publicly that there has been a change,
that you have learned' -- and then he mentioned his race -- 'but that the
actions of your people on the ground in my country are no different,' " the
official said.

Before the meeting, Chávez handed Obama a book, "Las Venas Abiertas de
America Latina," or "The Open Veins of Latin America." The work, published
in the 1970s, is by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. It discusses the
history of European colonization and what Galeano sees as the malign
influence of the United States.

In an interview with the radio program "Democracy Now" soon after Obama's
election, Galeano said: "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the
time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I'd like, I
hope, that he never, never forgets this."

The senior Latin American diplomat said: "I see many of the others making a
point of his race. . . . I don't see him doing it nearly as much."

'Global Consensus' Sought

Obama has mentioned his race as part of a Latin America agenda broader than
the Bush administration's, which focused primarily on promoting an economic
policy of free trade, government privatizations and lower public debt. The
mix became known as the Washington Consensus, a term used as an epithet in
much of Latin America.

The last Summit of the Americas, in 2005, was dominated by differences over
trade, which the Bush administration saw as the best way to promote economic
growth.

But much of the region's recent growth has been driven by exports of natural
resources, often controlled by small groups of families or foreign
companies. The income gap has widened in some countries.

By contrast, Obama announced Saturday that the United States will contribute
to a new $100 million micro-finance loan program for the region. And during
a meeting with 14 Caribbean leaders the previous evening, he said "bottom-up
growth" should be the approach each leader takes to reduce poverty, a senior
administration official said.

"It's pretty clear that what President Obama is working toward is a global
consensus," said Lawrence H. Summers, director of the White House's National
Economic Council. "When you have a storm like this one, you need a
collective recognition that the poor need help, not more policy hectoring."




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