Upon assuming the US presidency, Joe Biden asserted in his first major foreign policy address, “America is back!” For Latin America and the Caribbean, this has meant an “aggressive expansion” of the US military in the region.
US Military Projection in Latin America and the Caribbean Intensifies
President Joe Biden was not aware for days that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned Austin had been hospitalized, the source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery.
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Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks periodically assumed the duties of the defense secretary while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico during the time Austin was hospitalized, two US officials said. Hicks had arrived in Puerto Rico prior to Austin’s hospitalization.
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The congressional oversight committees were not notified of Austin’s hospitalization until Friday night, according to three congressional aides familiar with the matter.
Biden wasn’t aware for days that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized
How’s that promise to be transparent going, Biden?! /s
Two centuries after the speech that inaugurated the United States’ policy toward the region, five Democratic lawmakers call for an end to the Cuban embargo and the declassification of secret CIA files, as well as reforms to the IMF and the OAS
A group of US representatives call for an end to the Monroe Doctrine and interventionism in Latin America
Doubtful that this will ever happen.
Previously:
Last week a US district court granted Sri Lanka’s request for a six-month pause on a creditor lawsuit against the country. Hamilton Reserve Bank holds a big chunk of one of Sri Lanka’s now-defaulted bonds and had been suing it for immediate repayment.
Sri Lanka’s debt trap and the vultures
Why did the US want Hawaii? With even a glance at its sensual beaches and lush jungles, it’s no surprise that the scenic islands have always been desirable. But as with any story of settlement, the development of Hawaii didn’t come about as peacefully or honorably as its sumptuous vistas would have you believe. For American lawyer and entrepreneur Sanford Ballard Dole, Hawaii was a gold mine — or at least a pineapple one — and he used his government influence and self-appointed position in Hawaii to push the US toward taking over the islands in the late 1890s.
The Insane Story Of How A Fruit Juice Company Forcefully Stole The Hawaiian Kingdom
Related:
Big corporations, golf courses and hotels have been taking water from locals for years. Now the fire may result in even more devastating water theft
Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set to tour Latin America with a group of congressional Democrats
The agenda (which has not yet been made public) is expected to include meetings with Presidents Lula da Silva (Brazil), Gabriel Boric (Chile) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and parliamentary representatives. The legislators will also meet with civil society organizations that work “on the frontlines of ecological transitions, democratic transformations and peace negotiations in the countries,” the delegation explains in a joint statement. The trip seeks to “promote a U.S.-Latin American relationship based on mutual respect, understanding and a commitment to cooperation.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a key figure in the Democratic Party’s most progressive wing, and Misty Rebik, Sanders’s chief of staff (sent on behalf of the 81-year-old veteran senator), will be joined by four congressmen: Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar (both from Texas), Nydia Velázquez (New York) and Maxwell Frost (Florida), who is the youngest congressman in the House of Representatives at 26. Castro is a member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, which is part of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee. He recently spearheaded a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure Peru’s President Dina Boluarte over human rights violations occurring in that country. Casar is in his first term as a congressman and belongs to the Progressive Caucus, while Velazquez became the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress in 1993.
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The defense of democracy is another ideal that guides the trip. According to the congresspeople, the “twin” insurrections on Capitol Hill, on January 6, 2021, and in Brasilia (on January 8, 2023) “made it clear that the fate of democracy in the United States is closely tied to that of its southern neighbors. “[Our] democracies,” they believe, “not only share the challenge of defending their institutions from political violence, disinformation and other forms of anti-democratic intervention; they also share the challenge of restoring confidence in the ability of those institutions to meet citizens’ fundamental needs.”
Ocasio-Cortez highlights another goal of the trip: exploring how to “confront disinformation and violent threats to our democracies.” The charismatic congresswoman adds that “it’s long past time for a realignment of the United States’ relationship to Latin America. The U.S. needs to publicly acknowledge the harms we’ve committed through interventionist and extractive policies, and chart a new course based on trust and mutual respect.”
FIRE lawyer Zach Greenberg reacts to a student-selected speaker who criticized Israel, the university, capitalism, and more in her May 12 law school commencement speech.
Link to full commencement speech.
This commencement speech shocked listeners via Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
In history classes (in public or private schools, colleges, and others), state propaganda, and mainstream history, a historical fiction has been spun that allegedly debunks any notion of noninterventionism. This is the myth of American isolationism.
The US Followed a Policy of Foreign Intervention Long before World War II
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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