We made history / Hicimos la historia

(Photo from Huffington Post)

Si el amigo de la foto está contento allá en Senegal, imagínense como nos sentimos acá en EE.UU. En el Bronx, donde vivo, la gente sacó tamboras a tocar merengue en las calles hasta las 2 de la mañana. El hecho que EE.UU. va a tener un presidente Afro es, a la vez, el fruto de 400 años de lucha, y solamente el principio de un proyecto de nación y de mundo que está incipiente todavía. Por ahora, Obama y su familia merecen sus dos meses de vacaciones, pero en enero, empieza el trabajo duro. Aquí en Estados, le deseamos suerte y nos compremetemos a apoyar. A ver que nos trae el futuro.

If the guy in the photo is happy all the way over in Senegal, imagine how we're feeling here in the US. In the Bronx, where I live, people took out their tamboras and played merengue until 2 in the morning. The fact that we're going to have a black president is both the fruit of 400 years of black struggle and only the beginning of a nation-building (and world-building) project that's still incipient, and our man has his work cut out for him. For now, Barack and his family deserve two months of much-needed rest, but in January, the heavy lifting starts. Here in the US, we wish him luck and pledge ourselves to help him along. We'll see what the future brings.

Colombia made an appearance in tonight's presidential debate - Obama, unlike McCain, committed to ensuring protection for Colombia's brutalized labor organizers before signing a deal. McCain, unlike Obama, made this funky eyebrow gesture.

Colombia apareció en el debate presidencial en EE.UU. Obama se comprometió a asegurar los derechos de los sindicatos antes de firmar. McCain, por su parte, hizo comentario con las sejas.

Daddy Yankee endorses McCain / Daddy Yankee sale a favor de McCain

Weird, right?
McCain on DY: "I just want to say thank you Daddy Yankee," said McCain, who also referred to him as Ramon, since his given name is Ramon Ayala. McCain said Yankee has been married 15 years, had grown up poor in Puerto Rico and made "the right choice" in life.
DY on McCain: "I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation" and that McCain was the best "fighter for the immigration issue."
Immigration, mostly from the Dominican Republic, is a huge deal in Puerto Rico...
Link

McCain in Colombia

John McCain, with an entourage including senators Joe Lieberman, Lindsay Graham, and other sweaty white men in summer colors arrived in Colombia today to, among other things, take a ride in a drug interdiction ship with wife Cindy. Said McCain: “We have a long way to go to stem the flow of drugs into the United States of America, [but] the progress that I’ve seen since previous visits here has been substantial and positive.’’ The recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, however, found a huge leap in coca cultivation (different from the interdiction McCain was talking about, but you see where I'm going with this, right?) from 78,000 hectares [193,000 acres] to 99,000 hectares [245,000 acres] - despite fumigation and manual eradication totaling 219,512 hectares [542,426 acres]. Oh well.

Some recommendation for McCain on ways to signal US for support Colombian institutionality, and respect for human rights from the Center for International Policy here, although McCain seems more bent on getting the conservative Latino vote - and a lot of the US-Colombians, believe me, are some real zealots for Uribe.

That this gambit with the hostages (an incredible bit of intelligence work and infiltration involved in scooby-dooing the FARC commander to get into an army chopper with 15 hostages under false pretenses) seems to have paid off is great (and lucky - previous rescue operations have resulted in dead hostages) news for Igrid, the three US contractors, and the 12 Colombian military and police hostages who have apparently been freed, but it's definitely good news for Uribe, who is clearly itching to run for a third term and will probably enjoy even higher popularity after this liberation. The irritating presence of McCain in the country through all of this makes one wonder how Uribe's vistory will reflect on McCain's candidacy and on the Free Trade Agreement he, and Uribe, support.

Violent Intersections of Commerce and Conflict in Colombia (and why we will be hearing about Colombia on the nightly news in the US very soon...)

The Bush administration has just fast-tracked the US Free Trade Agreement with Colombia (fast-tracked by the Bushadministration for Congressional debate), has put out a report called "The Violent Intersections of Commerce and Conflict: Examining the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and Plan Colombia." I haven't read it yet, so I can't vouch for it 100%, and I am far from an economist, but it seems like the connections being made in the report between foreign trade, Colombia's civil war, and the disproportionate impact of these policies on black and indigenous Colombians, are right on. AFSC has also put up a website campaigning against the current US policy in Colombia: http://www.tradeandwar.org/connections.html.

Speaking of the FTA, it looks like it might get some attention in the US press very soon, since purportedly anti-trade agreement Hilary's chief camaign strategist, Mark Penn, also works for a lobbying form hired by the Colombian government to get the FTA passed. So much for Hilary calling out Obama for waffling on NAFTA. Obama, meanwhile, has reiterated his opposition to these kinds of trade agreements, playing to the Democratic base, which is generally opposed to the idea of jobs going overseas. So, as the Center fo International Policy blog puts it,

"As the Pennsylvania primary draws near, Colombia may become the subject of a national campaign controversy. If that comes to pass, we can expect an onslaught of distorted, simplistic rhetoric about security improvements, labor-union killings, Alvaro Uribe’s popularity, the drug trade, and much else. Readers who know Colombia well: prepare to have your patience sorely tested."