US-Cuba Migration Talks Restart

The State Department says migration talks between the United States and Cuba will resume on Tuesday. The talks, which will take place in New York, follow the May announcement of President Obama's willingness to restart negotiations.

The talks were previously suspended in 2003 under the Bush administration. Among other things, the administration accused Cuba of denying some Cubans the right to travel to the United States, not permitting the US to set up a new legal way for Cubans to migrate.

The Cubans denied the accusations. “The Ministry rejects any attempt to hold Cuba responsible for failing to comply with the Migratory Accord, when in reality it is our country that faces intensifying hostilities and provocations from the United States government as part of your useless efforts to defeat the legitimate government elected in a sovereign way by the Cuban people,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in 2007.


Online sources-CNN
Image-The Washington Note

Haiti, Guatemala amongst world’s most “failed states”

Foreign Policy revealed its annual list of the most unstable countries in the world and a few states from the Americas were not exempt from the list. Haiti was ranked in 11^th due to being “wracked by extreme poverty, lawlessness and urban violence.” The “narcoterrorist insurgency” in Colombia was influential in placing that country in 33^rd place, and rounding out the worse of the worse was Bolivia (59^th) and Guatemala (60^th).

The list of the 60 most “failed states” can be read here; Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia claimed the top 3 spots.

Image- UNCDF

Sources- Foreign Policy

L. America ignored in Obama’s policy speech

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama (image) neglected to directly mention Latin America during a major foreign affairs speech made yesterday in Chicago. The Illinois Senator bemoaned “the consequences of a foreign policy based on a flawed ideology” on a number of topics ranging from nuclear arms to foreign aid to the Iraq conflict.

Mind you, this does not mean that Obama has ignored Latin America altogether as he demonstrated in a speech shortly before the President’s tour of the Americas last month:

“We need to restore U.S. relations in the hemisphere. We need to consolidate the gains that have been made in the sweeping change of the last few years. We need to sustain our commitment to democracy, to social justice, and to opportunity for our neighbors to the south. The western hemisphere is too important to our core economic and security interests to be treated with the neglect and mismanagement that have defined the past six years”.

However, for him to have not explicitly mentioned the Americas in such a seemingly vital speech does raise some eyebrows. Hopefully Obama can provide more details of his views on Latin America in the weeks to come.

Links- International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, U.S. Senator Barack Obama

Image- Salon

Daily headlines: April 11, 2007

* Is U.S. President George W. Bush’s immigration plan realistic or impractical? The Christian Science Monitor examines it.

* U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized “a positive agenda for Latin America” during remarks given on Tuesday.

* Foul play is suspected in the murder of a migrant worker’s rights activist found beaten to death in Monterrey, Mexico.

* One of Los Angeles’ top Latino radio DJs was acquitted of charges that accused him of criminally threatening his own son.

* As if Chile didn’t have enough mounting problems we can add another to the list- sub-standard stadiums for soccer World Cup qualifiers.

Links- The News & Observer, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters UK, Newsday, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Image- Reuters (Dozens of Border Patrol officers serve as background for President Bush speech near the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday)

Condi Rice pledges aid to Haiti

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vowed over $200 million in economic aid to Haiti during a visit by Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis to Washington. Rice justified the continuing aid to Haiti by observing that that “the Haitian government is making good progress on behalf of its people.” Nevertheless, Rice advised Haiti’s government to make economic reform “a front burner issue” along with counter-narcotics efforts.

Links- International Herald Tribune, Monsters & Critics, Hardbeatnews

Image- Voice of America (Condoleezza Rice meeting with Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis)