Obama Has Failed Latinos, Latin America

The Miami Herald’s Latin America correspondent Andres Oppenheimer wrote a scathing and analytical piece about President Barack Obama’s broken promises to Latinos and Latin America. A few of his points:

• The failure to pass the DREAM Act and “On the broader issue of a comprehensive immigration reform, the president did not meet his campaign promise to make it a ‘top priority’ of his first year in office, or of his second year.”
• No free trade agreements with Colombia or Panama, but the one with South Korea is pending.
• Lacking diplomacy: “Obama, who had promised to forge ‘a new alliance of the Americas’ to end ‘years of negligence’ toward the region, has not done either. Among other things, he failed to meet his campaign vow to appoint a special U.S. envoy to the Americas, and to upgrade the 33-country Summit of the Americas to turn it into an annual event, instead of a meeting taking place every three or four years.”

Good points, to be sure, but I’m sure the list could be longer.

On the other hand, Oppenheimer also gives Obama credit for the good things he’s done, “including pursuing a more multilateral foreign policy, standing up for democracy during the Honduras coup and Ecuador’s police uprising – despite the fact that it amounted to defending anti-U.S. demagogues – and expanding family travel and cultural exchanges with Cuba.”