In an unprecedented statement on 26 March 2015, all 33 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which represents the entire region, expressed opposition to US government sanctions against Venezuelan officials, referring to them as "the application of unilateral coercive measures contrary to International Law". The statement went on to manifest CELAC's "rejection of the Executive Order issued by the Government of the United States of America on March 9, 2015", and its consideration "that this Executive Order should be reversed".Though the IBT reporter needs to brush up on her history;
This may be the first time in contemporary history that all Latin American and Caribbean nations have rejected a US policy in the region, since Washington's embargo against Cuba.Actually almost all of Latin America, in the 1960s, supported the U.S. embargo against Cuba. That was because Fidel Castro was actively trying to destabilize many Latin American governments; to spread the revolution (by landing paramilitaries in, for one famous example, Venezuela). If one wanted to fly from South America into Cuba back then, you had to first go to Spain or Mexico to find a flight. Until Salvador Allende Gossens was 'elected' President of Chile in 1970 and re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Still, we laugh;
Almost without pause, Obama opened the door to Cuba, admitting Washington's failure, and then shut it on Venezuela, implementing a practically identical policy of unilateral sanctions, political adversity and allegations of threats to US national security. Before the region even had time to celebrate the loosening of the noose around Cuba's neck, it was tightened on Venezuela's. The region expressed concern over why President Obama would impose a policy proven to fail on another nation in the hemisphere, especially during a period of renewed relations.They're taking Obama's rhetoric more seriously than he does himself.
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