A U.S.-Friendly Latin America

It Is Achievable and Necessary

  This week 69-year-old Salvador Sanchez Ceren was inaugurated as the new President of El Salvador. He is the latest in a long line of former anti-American guerrilla fighters to be democratically elected as the leader of an important Latin American nation. That trend should not be continually ignored by Americans.

    Back in the 1980s Salvador Sanchez Ceren was a rural schoolteacher in El Salvador when he took to the mountains and became a top commander in his country's bloody Civil War, which he blamed on the imperialist designs of the United States. 

   Now as the new President of El Salvador, Mr. Salvador Sanchez Ceren wants desperately to be "friends" with the United States, recognizing that his poor country cannot battle its awesome problems -- crime and poverty -- while also battling the world's superpower. "For the vast majority of El Salvadoreans and for the vast majority of Americans," he said Monday {June 2, 2014}, "El Salvador and the United States need to be friends, not the bitter enemies like we were way back in the 1980s."

     This map shows tiny El Salvador wedged tightly between Guatemala and Honduras. It also illustrates what President Salvador Sanchez Ceren means when he says friendship with the United States is vital for both countries. The UN says El Salvador has the world's 4th highest homicide rate, behind only Honduras, Venezuela and Belize. Also, exiles from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -- located directly southeast of Mexico -- comprise some of the most vicious gang activity that is devastating some key American cities. Crime-infested El Salvador has a population of just under six million with a $24 billion economy. El Salvador is, of course, a Spanish speaking nation but its currency is the U. S. dollar. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the former anti-U. S. guerrilla fighter, says his two priorities are fighting drug-fueled crime and then boosting the economy in El Salvador. "To accomplish those primary goals," he says, "I will welcome the help the United States can provide our people. And I sincerely believe that the United States owes our people and its people that help."

    The 1986 Oliver Stone movie "Salvador" got five major Academy Award nominations. It starred James Woods as war photographer Richard Boyle covering the brutal El Salvador Civil War that pitted guerrilla fighters such as Commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren against U.S.-backed right-wing insurgents. Woods/Boyle fell in love with a guerrilla fighter named Maria and refused to leave her behind when he had a chance to save himself. "Salvador" is still shown often on cable TV channels. It is a gripping, true-to-life reminder of Latin American turmoil and atrocities involving the U. S. and, moreover, it is a 2014 reminder of why so many former anti-American guerrilla fighters -- from Danny Ortega in Nicaragua to Dilma Rousseff in Brazil to Michelle Bachelet in Chile to Salvador Sanchez Ceren in El Salvador, etc. -- have, not coincidentally, become democratically elected Presidents of their nations.

      President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the old guerrilla fighter who took over as the democratically elected President of El Salvador this week, immediately announced his desire to be "friends" with the United States. Like all Latin American nations, El Salvador can not successfully tackle its mammoth problems -- namely poverty and crime -- while also fighting against superpower America's belligerence, sanctions, or even benign indifference. And America's problems -- much of it directly related to the spillover from immense poverty and crime below its southern border -- can best be addressed by increasing "friendships" with its Latin American neighbors.

     Americans are not supposed to comprehend this recent photo of Dilma Rousseff, the democratically elected President of Latin American superpower Brazil, showing deep affection for Cuba's revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. By the same token, Americans are not supposed to comprehend the inauguration of Salvador Sanchez Ceren in El Salvador this week. Dilma Rousseff and Salvador Sanchez Ceren are among the former anti-American guerrilla fighters in Latin America who were inspired by the success of the Cuban Revolution to fight U. S. imperialism. They survived those fights and their efforts helped get them democratically elected Presidents once democracy began to replace imperialism throughout Latin America. And so, for the record, that's why President Dilma Rousseff still loves the elderly Fidel Castro and why Salvador Sanchez Ceren is the new President of El Salvador.

     This is Danny Ortega listening attentively to Fidel Castro in 1980 when Ortega was the young Sandinista guerrilla fighter against the U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua.

    As the democratically elected and re-elected President of Nicaragua, Danny Ortega says, "The United States, with its unmatched military and economic power, should be the unmatched dominant force in Latin America, not one man on one little island. But Fidel Castro is perceived as a fighter for the majority poor against a rich minority. So, one man on one island changed Latin America more than one superpower nation."

     Americans, including me, do not have to approve of guerrilla-fighters-turned-democratic-Presidents like Danny Ortega worshiping Fidel Castro but we should be able to comprehend why they do. This photo shows President Ortega of Nicaragua on a recent visit to Cuba to pay homage to his idol, Fidel Castro. Standing in the van keeping a close eye on Fidel is Dalia Soto del Valle, his wife since the death of Celia Sanchez in 1980. She is the mother of his last five sons and, since his near-fatal illness in 2006, even visiting Presidents need Dalia's permission before they can see Fidel. "If I didn't put my foot down," she says, "he would agree to see everybody!"

      This EPA photo was taken June 3, 2014. It shows a Cuban walking past a sign that reads, "Fidel and Raul Forever." Raul turned 83-years-old on June 3rd. Fidel turns 88 on August 13th. Their longevity continues to confound and amaze the world.

The Castro brothers are indeed very old.

In January of 1959 the Castro brothers were still young.

A beautiful American bird, the Baltimore Oriole.

{Photo courtesy: Sherry Nicholson and Birds and Blooms Magazine}

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