Like a pompous European monarch visiting one of his overseas territories in the “Third World,” President Obama recently spent four hours in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico. Billed as celebrating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s visit in 1961 to Puerto Rico, as well as a chance to discuss the March report issued by the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status, the visit had little to with either. In fact, Obama’s chief priority was to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at San Juan’s Caribe Hilton Hotel where Obama pocketed $1 million for his re-election campaign.
The Kennedy angle was a cheap political stunt by the Obama team to try to attach a war-mongering, Wall Street-controlled puppet to the legacy of an actual progressive president. The JFK “anniversary” visit claim, itself, was a ruse, since Kennedy visited Puerto Rico in December 1961, not June. And Kennedy stopped off in Puerto Rico as part of an “Alliance for Progress” tour of Latin America that also took Kennedy to Venezuela and Colombia to champion America’s new approach to Latin America after years of Washington treating Latin American nations as vassal states. Obama, on the other hand, does not have the “cojones” to visit Venezuela because of his applying old CIA policies toward Latin America. Obama’s Latin American policy is a policy of sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, coup-making in Honduras and Ecuador, and gross interference in the domestic affairs of every Latin American and Caribbean nation.
It is clear that Obama favors the continued status quo in Puerto Rico. His task force’s report offers the island only two referendums on future status. The first is whether Puerto Rico wishes to continue its links with the United States. With two-thirds of Puerto Ricans favoring either continued commonwealth status or statehood, that would ensure the pro-independence forces would fail in round one to achieve an absolute majority. The second referendum would give Puerto Ricans the option of statehood or continued Commonwealth status. The ploy is clearly to remove independence as a serious option from the table. As Obama’s motorcade drive through downtown San Juan, crowds yelled “Yanqui go home!” and “Independencia!”
Obama’s policies toward Puerto Rico are no different than his polices toward other American colonies, including Obama’s native Hawai’i, where Obama grew up as a “haole,” a “foreigner,” people who are generally despised by native Hawai’ians who see the haole as usurpers of Hawai’ian culture and lands. Obama’s view of Hawai’i, Guahan (Guam), Eastern Samoa, Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, as well as Puerto Rico, reflects a colonialist attitude that is no different from that of the “pieds-noirs” white French colonists of Algeria, the illegal Jewish settlers on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, and the “Jonkheer” Dutch settlers of Indonesia.
Leaked State Department cables also point to the fact that the Obama administration wants to maintain the status quo regarding the political status of British colonies around the world. Priority number one is the continued presence of U.S. military and intelligence bases on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Ascension Island in the south Atlantic, and on British Sovereign Bases on Cyprus.
Obama only favors decolonization and secession where U.S. strategic and economic interests, including oil, are at play. Therefore, while Obama will welcome South Sudan’s independence on July 9, the neo-colonialist in the White House will not extend the same consideration to Puerto Rico, Guahan, Palestine, or British colonies like Bermuda or the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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America’s neo-colonial potentate inspects one of his Caribbean colonies
Part I of a two-part series on Obama’s neo-colonialist policies toward America’s colonies
Posted on June 29, 2011 by Wayne Madsen
Like a pompous European monarch visiting one of his overseas territories in the “Third World,” President Obama recently spent four hours in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico. Billed as celebrating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s visit in 1961 to Puerto Rico, as well as a chance to discuss the March report issued by the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status, the visit had little to with either. In fact, Obama’s chief priority was to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at San Juan’s Caribe Hilton Hotel where Obama pocketed $1 million for his re-election campaign.
The Kennedy angle was a cheap political stunt by the Obama team to try to attach a war-mongering, Wall Street-controlled puppet to the legacy of an actual progressive president. The JFK “anniversary” visit claim, itself, was a ruse, since Kennedy visited Puerto Rico in December 1961, not June. And Kennedy stopped off in Puerto Rico as part of an “Alliance for Progress” tour of Latin America that also took Kennedy to Venezuela and Colombia to champion America’s new approach to Latin America after years of Washington treating Latin American nations as vassal states. Obama, on the other hand, does not have the “cojones” to visit Venezuela because of his applying old CIA policies toward Latin America. Obama’s Latin American policy is a policy of sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, coup-making in Honduras and Ecuador, and gross interference in the domestic affairs of every Latin American and Caribbean nation.
It is clear that Obama favors the continued status quo in Puerto Rico. His task force’s report offers the island only two referendums on future status. The first is whether Puerto Rico wishes to continue its links with the United States. With two-thirds of Puerto Ricans favoring either continued commonwealth status or statehood, that would ensure the pro-independence forces would fail in round one to achieve an absolute majority. The second referendum would give Puerto Ricans the option of statehood or continued Commonwealth status. The ploy is clearly to remove independence as a serious option from the table. As Obama’s motorcade drive through downtown San Juan, crowds yelled “Yanqui go home!” and “Independencia!”
Obama’s policies toward Puerto Rico are no different than his polices toward other American colonies, including Obama’s native Hawai’i, where Obama grew up as a “haole,” a “foreigner,” people who are generally despised by native Hawai’ians who see the haole as usurpers of Hawai’ian culture and lands. Obama’s view of Hawai’i, Guahan (Guam), Eastern Samoa, Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, as well as Puerto Rico, reflects a colonialist attitude that is no different from that of the “pieds-noirs” white French colonists of Algeria, the illegal Jewish settlers on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, and the “Jonkheer” Dutch settlers of Indonesia.
Leaked State Department cables also point to the fact that the Obama administration wants to maintain the status quo regarding the political status of British colonies around the world. Priority number one is the continued presence of U.S. military and intelligence bases on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Ascension Island in the south Atlantic, and on British Sovereign Bases on Cyprus.
Obama only favors decolonization and secession where U.S. strategic and economic interests, including oil, are at play. Therefore, while Obama will welcome South Sudan’s independence on July 9, the neo-colonialist in the White House will not extend the same consideration to Puerto Rico, Guahan, Palestine, or British colonies like Bermuda or the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2011 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).