Word: trinidad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Change is in the air this spring, or at least it will be soon, as President Obama pursues “a new beginning with Cuba.” In remarks made at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, Obama indicated his willingness to engage with the Cuban government in an effort to ameliorate U.S.-Cuba relations, which have remained chilly for half a century. And, prior to the summit, Obama broke with traditional policy by lifting restrictions placed on Cuban-Americans’ ability to travel to Cuba and send money to friends and relatives...
...hemisphere won't get too far in correcting that situation until they get past the Cuba problem. It turned out to be the summit's marquee issue, largely because other Latin leaders see the embargo as a reflection of how Washington treats them as well. Before leaving for Trinidad, Obama eliminated restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island - a gesture that effectively threw the ball, as Obama said, into Havana's court. To everyone's surprise, Cuban President Raul Castro - who is making a serious push to have his country readmitted to hemispheric groups like the Organization...
...Marxist-tinged polemic, The Open Veins is one of the best introductions to the longstanding Latin grievances that keep producing populist leaders like Chávez. It was an appropriate gift for Obama - not because he's clueless about that manera de pensar, but because he proved at the Trinidad summit to be the first U.S. President to get it. "We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms," to Latin America, he told the gathering. "But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior...
...genuine, it's hard to overestimate how important that promise is to Latin Americans, who've experienced a lot more heavy-handed interventionism and condescending disregard than they have partnership from either Republicans or Democrats in Washington. It not only heartened Latin leaders in Trinidad, it disarmed them. The summit could have easily deteriorated into another yanqui-bashing fest over the U.S.'s role in the global economic crisis or its antiquated trade embargo against Cuba. But Obama had even Chávez feeling "great optimism" that his nation's icy relations with the U.S. will thaw, starting with...
...Obama needs to follow Trinidad's feel-good rhetoric with more concrete programs, although he and Latin America know he can't do much in the short term thanks to the U.S.'s economic calamity. Many Latin American officials in recent months have told TIME they're not looking for much for now; but they do want to make sure Obama shifts hemispheric priorities away from the U.S. obsession with free trade and the drug war to development concerns like education, alternative energy and democratic institution-building, which the U.S. President did engage in Trinidad...