On December 17, Florida’s Republican Senator George LeMieux released a statement in which he underscored the state’s close relationship with Latin America and discussed his efforts to ensure that the nation’s policies toward the region promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Recently, LeMieux sat down with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and received a commitment from the Obama Administration that the United States will continue to normalize relations with Honduras and will increase its support for dissidents in Cuba. As a result of these pledges, the Senator has released the hold on the nomination of Thomas Shannon to the post of U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.
In his statement, LeMieux said:
“In Honduras, the U.S. will continue to normalize relations with that country’s government and President-elect Lobo. Counter-narcotics cooperation will resume, and visa procedures will be normalized.
“In Cuba, the U.S. will reopen the process for non-profit organizations to apply for pro-democracy grants, the practice of including members of the Cuban pro-democracy movement in events at the U.S. Interests Section will be restored, Title IV of the Helms Burton Act will be enforced, and the awarding of Cuba Democracy Assistance grants will be done in a fair and transparent manner.”
The readiness of the Administration to adhere to its commitments to Sen. LeMieux was memorialized in a letter from Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela to the Senator. The full text of said letter is included below.
There is no question that the pressure applied by the Republican members of Congress on the Obama Administration has been largely responsible for the policy shifts with respect to Honduras and Cuba. After flirting with the Castro and Chavez dictatorships, Obama appears resigned to a more realistic approach in Latin America than his initial policy of left-wing appeasement. Such a shift makes strategic sense, as it appears that the advance of the left in Latin America may be on the wane. Shortly before the election of Porfirio Lobo in Honduras, Panama elected a conservative president, Chile is poised to do the same in its upcoming run-off, and Brazil and Nicaragua appear headed in the same direction next year. The attempts by elected leftist rulers to change their countries’ electoral systems to remain in power indefinitely, are turning public opinion against them. After all, most of the challenged election regulations were enacted to prevent the return of dictatorships to a region that suffered greatly under them.
(Above right: Sen. George LeMieux official photo).
Letter From Ast Sec Valenzuela
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