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	<title>Council on Hemispheric Affairs &#187; Obama</title>
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	<link>http://www.coha.org</link>
	<description>COHA is an NGO specialized in monitoring Latin American and Canadian Relations for more than 30 years...</description>
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		<title>How Low Can They Go: The U.S. Barely Debates its Latin-American Policy, with no Intellectual Recourse</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/the-ugly-truth/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/the-ugly-truth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:03:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Daily News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=15747</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After President Barack Obama delivered the last State of the Union address for his current term, the Republican aspirants for the presidency immediately responded that his rhetoric sounded more like a “state of the presidential campaign.” Though there is some waggish appeal to this unlikely claim, in light of the steadily degrading and pumped-up and theatrical nature to the Republican candidates’ manner in characterizing the party’s optimism in recent weeks, not to mention that challenger Mitt Romney’s issuing his own “pre-buttal” pessimistic assessment prior to the Obama address, which criticized the President on any number of issues. Even amid the many instances of the two parties’ ideologically soaked clashes, one common feature was starkly, but depressingly clear: they hardly have evinced even a trace of dust in sounding the need of a comprehensive approach when it comes to U.S.-Latin American relations. Aside from some slightly amusing last-minute anti-Castro bashing in an attempt to nail down Florida’s electoral vote, the Republican presidential hopefuls have framed their stance on contemporary U.S.-Latin American relations within the context of unadulterated schlock. They consistently serve up obsolete and sterile Cold War-era doctrines and diplomatic clichés with expired shelf lives. These have not only included weak [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Iran&#8217;s Ahmadinejad Visits Four Latin American Countries</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/15536/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/15536/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:49:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Brazil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cuba]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecuador]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=15536</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Washington and Venezuela&#8217;s ties are further frayed as Miami consul general is expelled from the country. President Obama’s authorization of the expulsion of the Venezuelan consul general from the consulate office in Miami has further deteriorated relations between the two countries. Although the Obama administration has not been explicit as to the reason for the expulsion, the action is within Washington’s legal right. This decision makes it even more apparent that Washington is unwilling or unable to implement policies that will constructively influence Latin America. The White House’s latest decision displays the hard truth that President Obama’s approach is to deal with left-leaning hemispheric regimes with a hard-line political agenda of ridicule rather than through constructive policy-making in the region. His administration’s attitude seems to be that no hemispheric issue has the potential to be a compelling factor in the next US presidential election. However, votes could be picked up from rightist exile groups coming from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela among other disaffected conservatives, who hold passionate thoughts on their personal political agendas. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived on Sunday night to Caracas in the first stop of a four-nation tour of Latin America. Besides Venezuela, the Iranian leader will [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>The Race for the White House: A Call for a Regionally-based Enlightened Foreign Policy toward Latin America</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/the-race-for-the-white-house-a-call-for-a-regionally-based-enlightened-foreign-policy-toward-latin-america/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/the-race-for-the-white-house-a-call-for-a-regionally-based-enlightened-foreign-policy-toward-latin-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:58:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=15033</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With a little under a year remaining until the next U.S. presidential election, a coherent and sustainable area policy toward Latin America remains absent from the campaign literature and both presidential parties’ electoral strategies. In fact, a true U.S.-Latin American foreign policy—one that involves succinct initiatives rather than populist rants or ideological outbursts—has yet to be developed in the 21st century. If one is left to assess the future of U.S.-Latin American foreign policy simply by relying on the last three years of the Obama administration, or the empty rhetoric from the entire Republican field, the future appears rather bleak. Nonetheless, one candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, has detailed a slightly weightier, yet basically ill-informed vision that promotes regional integration and the strengthening of economic ties. His plan is almost entirely dominated by commercial interests and remains in large part focused on securitization. Barely moving beyond a fallow bilateral approach harnessed during the post-World War II years, Romney’s Latin American policy does manage to squeeze out some relatively non-bombastic verbiage. For his part, President Obama has yet to outline a detailed vision on Latin American issues for his reelection, but the short blurb on the White House policy page [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Neo-Paramilitary Gangs Ratchet Up Their Threat to Colombian Civil Society and the Long Term Survival of Civic Rectitude in the Public Arena</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/neo-paramilitary-gangs-ratchet-up-their-threat-to-colombian-civil-society-and-the-long-term-survival-of-civic-rectitude-in-the-public-arena/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/neo-paramilitary-gangs-ratchet-up-their-threat-to-colombian-civil-society-and-the-long-term-survival-of-civic-rectitude-in-the-public-arena/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:12:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colombia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=15027</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The emergence of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) represented the largest and most violent paramilitary group in the country, funding its murderous activities by means of the immensely enlarging ongoing drug trade. The Colombian government enacted Decree 128 and the Justice and Peace Law to launch and subsequently monitor the demobilization process, which failed under the Uribe administration, and led to the emergence of neo-paramilitary drug gangs known as the Bacrims. (Las Bandas Criminales) The Bacrims are still carrying out their atrocities with a modus operandi similar to that of their AUC paramilitary predecessors. This has resulted in human rights violations and stepped-up drug trafficking. The Bacrims continue to maintain a strong presence in municipalities where Uribe-backed candidates claimed victory in the October 30, 2011 elections, and their long-term success would unquestionably threaten the prospects for peace in Colombia. Executive Summary Colombia’s first paramilitaries were known as ‘self-defense groups’, after they began to emerge in the 1960’s. Most of their funding came sub-rosa from the Colombian military, and they committed continuous acts of sharpening violence against rural civilian bands perceived as supporters or sympathizers of the guerrillas. In 1997, a new paramilitary group commonly known as the United [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Obama’s Drug Policy: Yet Another Broken Promise</title>
		<link>http://www.coha.org/obamas-drug-policy-yet-another-broken-promise/</link>
		<comments>http://www.coha.org/obamas-drug-policy-yet-another-broken-promise/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:10:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COHA Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.coha.org/?p=13557</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[White House Drug Policy Bound to Become Major Administration Issue When Obama first took office in 2009, he promised a drug policy more focused on public health. However, recent statements from the DEA and raids on medical marijuana providers have proved  otherwise. External pressures are escalating as drug cartel-led violence across the border intensifies. Internal pressures are also becoming more widespread, as the public is seeing few changes affecting drug policy. Obama should seriously consider re-evaluating his approach to drug policy for his 2012 campaign. &#160; &#160; A Promise for Change Obama entered the Oval Office promising to change national drug policy. He proposed altering the current U.S. approach, suggesting that the war on drugs be re-categorized as a public health issue. Obama’s unprecedented admission to previous cocaine use[i] led to the hope that his stance on narcotics would be more understanding and compassionate than the war on drugs initiated by  Nixon  in 1971. For example, upon taking office in 2009, Obama’s newly appointed drug czar Gil Kerlikowske claimed that the war on drugs had ended. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in May 2009, Kerlikowske observed that: &#8220;Regardless of how you try to explain to people it&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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