Monday, April 13, 2015

telesur — Rubio Launches US President Bid with Attacks on Latin America

United States Senator Marco Rubio launched his presidential campaign Monday, with a fierce speech promising to renew U.S. leadership around the world. “We must no longer be passive in the face of Chinese and Russian aggression … especially Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua … by ending the near total disregard for the erosion of democracy and human rights around the world then our nation will be safer,” said Rubio, making his disapproval of these governments explicit. The statement contradicts a previous intervention by Rubio with the Brookings Institution in 2012, where he acknowledged that the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia were democratically elected. The Republican candidate promised he will usher in a “new American Century,” highlighting his belief that the U.S. has weakened, adding that the 2016 elections would decide what kind of country the U.S. would be in the future.…
More gunboat diplomacy.

Curiously enough, the US has two offspring of Cuban emigrés running for president. For their background as Cuban-Americans who are strong anti-Castro/Cuban revolution, see Fulgencio Batista for the history.

telesur
Rubio Launches US President Bid with Attacks on Latin America

3 comments:

Daniel said...

Even more curiously, Cruz's father actually fought alongside Fidel himself against the Batista regime. He later claimed to not know Castro was a communist at the time.

Magpie said...

And speaking of Latin America. I can't say that I follow the situation in Brazil closely, but the news I've got lately are kind of troubling:

¿Quiénes están detrás de las protestas en Brasil
contra Dilma Rousseff?
http://www.publico.es/internacional/quienes-detras-protestas-brasil-dilma.html

First, we have Dilma's government blundering left and right (from the World Cup to the Olympics and the move to neoliberalism).

Then, we have the new Twitter, Facebook, hipster, middle-class, opposition...

To give you an idea: these guys are so fucking crazy, that they make Dilma look reasonable.

1. There are among them some who ask for a military coup.
2. Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army officer, born-again Christian, is in favour of torture, is racist and said that he would only abstain from raping a minister because she wasn't worth it.
3. Another popular leader in the movement is one Marcello Reis: a Brazilian Golden-Dawner.
4. Another up-and-coming face is one fellow who apparently goes by the unlikely name of Kim Kataguiri: 19 years old, big fan of Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. And, it seems, he has his own fan club -- paid for by the Koch Bros.-- and the Mises Institute:

Who Are Those Free-Market Protestors in Brazil?
http://mises.org/blog/who-are-those-free-market-protestors-brazil

As they say over there: o mofo deu.

Peter Pan said...

And people were worried about John McCain...