Showing posts for "Latin America"
In an interview with the Financial Times, Anthony Lake, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), said Obama will likely pressure European allies to implement tougher sanctions on Iran. Lake also discussed Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, the U.S.-India nuclear deal, and U.S. policy toward Pakistan.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leaves today on his trip to Colombia, where he says he will work to promote free trade. Upon arriving in Cartagena this evening, McCain will meet with President Alvaro Uribe and several other leaders.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) both gave speeches on energy policy on Tuesday. McCain promoted his plan to implement a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, which he said will “give American businesses new incentives and rewards to seek, instead of just giving new taxes to pay and new orders to follow.” Obama again called for higher fuel standards and criticized proposals for domestic oil exploration and a gas tax holiday.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) responded to news of the U.S. trade deficit on Tuesday, criticizing “special interest-driven economic policies” that he said will increase the deficit but “won’t help American automakers secure fair treatment in South Korea, and won’t ensure that China stops devaluing its currency and tilting the playing field against American workers.”
On the eve of the Indiana and North Caroline primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had strong words against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). OPEC “can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price they’re going to put it at,” Clinton said (Politico).
Sen. Hillary Clinton told reporters Tuesday the Bush administration should be “much more forceful” in pressuring China to ease its crackdown on Tibetan activists. She said U.S. officials should not wait (Reuters) until the Olympics this summer to make their views known.
The Clinton and Obama campaigns continued to put forth conflicting rhetoric on the subject of trade just ahead of today’s Democratic nominating contests in Ohio and Texas. In a press conference Monday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) defended himself against allegations that Austin Goolsbee, an economic adviser to his campaign, privately assured Canadian officials that he does not really intend to alter NAFTA. Goolsbee did meet with the Canadian consulate, Obama said, but the Canadian embassy “has confirmed that he said exactly what I have been saying on the campaign trail.” Obama has said he would renegotiate NAFTA to include enforceable labor and environmental standards. The Clinton campaign claimed Obama was making “false denials” about Goolsbee’s meeting.
The Democratic candidates participated in a CNN/Univision debate in Austin, Texas Wednesday night, where Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) tried to stop the Obama campaign’s seeming momentum after his eleven straight victories (NYT) in the recent weeks of the primary season. In their first debate in three weeks, Clinton said she would not meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro unless there is evidence that he is freeing political prisoners, ending “some of the oppressive practices on the press,” and “opening up the economy.”
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for president Wednesday, saying McCain “understands the war we are in — the necessity of victory and the consequences of surrender.”
Most candidates have laid out their positions on U.S.-Cuba policy, and have occasionally expressed concern regarding Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s anti-American rhetoric. But Latin America has rarely generated much debate among Republican candidates this campaign season. The campaigns in Florida, of course, remain an exception. In the days leading up to the state’s January 29 primary, in which Cuban-American voters will represent an estimated ten percent of the Republican vote, candidates have increasingly invoked their anti-Castro positions.
When CFR.org started blogging on the U.S. presidential campaign back in May 2007, the foreign policy terrain appeared relatively uncomplicated….
Before a cheering crowd of millions (WashPost) at his inauguration on Tuesday, President Barack Obama called for a “new era…
“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who…
With Barack Obama set to become the forty-fourth president of the United States today, analysts of international affairs are looking…
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