NACLA Update 11/06/08 - Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity



Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
by NACLA Staff

The election of Barack Obama presents us with a unique window of opportunity, but it is a window that will not likely remain open for long. The direction of Obama's Americas policy is likely to be decided very soon, as he assembles his administration-and we do not have the luxury of complacency. It is up to us, as advocates for justice in the hemisphere, to ensure that an Obama administration ends the long legacy of using Latin America's blood and gold for U.S. ends. Now is the time to ensure that the next administration brings to the Americas not just change, but justice.

Barack Obama's victory was celebrated in the streets here in New York well into the early hours of Wednesday morning, and NACLA staff witnessed the impromptu cacerolazos, the honking of horns, and the dancing in the streets with genuine admiration for the anti-racist, anti-war, and social democratic motives behind much of the mobilization. For those of us concerned with U.S. actions around the world, the election of a liberal African American with international roots represents a possibility that how the United States comports itself overseas will, indeed, change for the better. This is an extraordinary moment.

But the inordinate power of unchecked global capital and the polymorphous "war on terror" remain unchanged. During the campaign, we got little sense that an Obama administration would, or could, attempt to reconfigure these realities. This is not surprising, given the pervasive shift to the neoliberal right that U.S. politics has made in the last few decades. It is, therefore, up to us, as activists and concerned citizens on the left, to pressure the Obama administration to adopt a more just foreign policy. We are asking you to join us in this fight, to take the energy that so many poured into this historic campaign and carry it forward to ensure that the change we're seeking is delivered.

We face what could be the most important moment in hemispheric relations in nearly a decade. Obama has made it clear that he will move decisively to re-engage with a Latin America that he sees as having been ignored under eight years of Bush. But the Obama campaign was a constant source of contradictions when it came to the Americas: He indicated a willingness to be more open toward Cuba, but reiterated his support for the embargo; he indicated that he supports a humane policy toward undocumented immigrants, but he wants to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border; he supports human and labor rights in Colombia, but is unambiguous in his support for Plan Colombia and its counterpart in Mexico, the Mérida Initiative. These equivocations indicate that a range of actual policies is possible under Obama, presenting both an opportunity and a challenge: We must push the Obama administration, as well as the national conversation, in a more progressive direction on hemispheric relations. Now is the time to make our voices heard.
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"Terror Incognita: Immigrants and the Homeland Security State"

November/December 2008: This issue of the NACLA Report focuses on the so-called Homeland Security in the Bush era, as it affects U.S. Latinos. Coverage includes attention to the political economy of immigrant raids and detention; the domestic applications of low-intensity conflict doctrine along the U.S.-Mexican border; the intersection of sex panics and xenophobia; and the connections between gentrification, urban planning, and counter-insurgency.
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