Trump Is Destroying The U.S. Reputation In Latin America

Why did Donald Trump decide to skip the Summit of the Americas recently, and send the vic-president instead. The charts above could be a big clue. Most of the people in Latin America do not like or trust Donald Trump.

These charts use information from a survey of seven important Latin American countries (Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela) by the Pew Research Center in 2017. Note in the top chart, huge majorities in all those countries have no confidence that Trump will do the right thing regarding world affairs.

That lack of trust and confidence in Trump has resulted in a much less positive view of the United States in all of those countries.

In other words, Trump is trashing the reputation of the United States with our Latin American neighbors -- just like he has done in the rest of the world.

Latin America Agrees - U.S. Should End The Cuban Embargo

 (This cartoon on Cuban embargo is by Matt Wuerker at Politico.com.)

Recently, U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro negotiated a return to normal diplomatic relations between the two countries. And last month each nation officially opened an embassy in the other country. But one thing the president did not do was end the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

That embargo has now been in effect for over 50 years. It was instituted to put economic pressure on Cuba, and force it to change their government (to one more compliant with U.S. government policies and U.S. corporate greed). To say it has not worked would be an understatement -- and the other nations of the world long ago abandoned it. They all now trade with Cuba as though the embargo did not exist. That includes the nations in this hemisphere, especially the Latin American nations.

Latin American nations have tried to convince the United States for many years to allow Cuba into the Organization of American States (OAS), and to normalize relations with Cuba. Those goals have now been accomplished. All that really remains to be done is to end the embargo on trade with Cuba.

The reason President Obama couldn't end the embargo is because that embargo was imposed by Congress -- and only Congress can remove it. Unfortunately, Congress is controlled by right-wing Republicans -- and they still think they can gain politically from continuing the embargo (especially among their xenophobic base).

Latin American nations disagree. They want the embargo to end. The Pew Research Center surveyed at least 1,000 citizens in each of five of the largest and most powerful Latin American nations, and they found huge majorities of citizens in those nations want the United States to end the embargo against Cuba. They see it as divisive and counterproductive. The results of that survey are illustrated in the chart below:

Mine Disaster Should Not Have Happened

A couple of weeks ago people all over the world held their collective breath as they watched the government of Chile, aided by mining experts and equipment from around the world, pull off an engineering miracle and rescue 33 miners who had been trapped underground for 69 days.   The Chilean government and everyone who helped them deserve all the praise and accolades they have gotten for successfully pulling off the rescue.

But what most people don't know is that the disaster at the mine should never have happened.   Both the copper company and the government of Chile knew the mine did not meet even the most rudimentary safety standards.   But the company opened the mine anyway, and the government allowed them to do it without requiring they first insure it was safe.

Javier Castillo, president of Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (United Workers' Center), claims the Chilean government knew the mine was not safe, but allowed it to open anyway.   He said,   "We had a meeting with Labor Minister Merino, in which we talked about the risks in that mine and the fact that despite the number of accidents, deaths and landslides, keeping jobs was always in consideration, at the price of the workers' lives."   He added  "the danger at that deposit was in fact made known to government authorities before the accident of last August 5."

Union leaders again tried to talk with government officials on July 5, after an accident in that same mine seam which cost a miner his leg.   At that time, government officials refused to see them.   They simply did not want to hear of problems in a mine that was making money for both the company and the government.

But it gets even worse.   The miners had told the company of growing problems within the mine, and on the same day the accident happened, they had asked to be permitted to leave the mine.   The company's operations manager Carlos Pinilla refused, and three hours later the disastrous cave-in happened.

Congressman Carlos Vilches talked with one of the trapped miners -- Juan Illanes.   Vilches said,   "He told me that at 11 they began to hear very loud noises.   They asked to leave and they were denied permission.   They believe there was negligence on the part of the owners and managers.   The conditions and the risk were already known, but these gentlemen (acted) as though it were just some crumbling . . . The reasonable thing would have been to get them out."

Miner Jimmy Sanchez said,   "The mine was making noise and they left us inside."   His fellow miner Omar Reygadas said,   "I was in the loader when it happened.   Afterwards I heard about the call.   It must have been the shift supervisor or the foreman.   One of them got in touch with Pinilla.   He knew very well what was happening in the mine, so he can't deny it.   It had been rumbling for several days."

A friend of miner Jorge Galleguilles said that by the fourth, the day before the cave-in, a truck driver had notified Pinilla of the impending disaster but,   "Nobody listened to him.   And that despite the fact that about a half ton of dirt and rocks had fallen on his truck.   The boxes -- the wall rocks -- were exploding every few minutes."

While the rescue was heroic, the fact that the miners were even in the mine at all is shameful.   The company was warned several times that conditions inside they mine were deterioating, and they refused to pull the miners out (or even let them come out after they pleaded with management).   And the government of Chile must accept its part of the blame.   They allowed the mine to open while knowing it was unsafe, and refused to listen to worker concerns even after accidents started to happen.

The president of Chile and his cohorts looked like heroes when the rescue happened.   They weren't.   They were just trying to cover up for their own incompetence.

Will We Learn From This Miracle ?

The world is normally a rather pathetic place.   There is far too much national, religious, ethnic and patriotic fervor which too easily translates into hatred.   We see evidence of that every day in newspapers, on TV, on the internet and even in our communities.   But tonight something special is happening as people all over the world are witnessing a rescue that not too long ago would have been considered impossible.

The 33 Chilean miners (actually 32 Chileans and 1 Bolivian) who were trapped many hundreds of meters underground after a mine collapse are finally being rescued after being trapped for a record 69-70 days.   The world is truly witnessing a miracle.   It's not a religious miracle, although I'm sure there are many who will see it as such, but a miracle of endurance, technology, hard work, perseverance, expertise, innovation, courage and a refusal to give up.   And that's just at the site of the incredible rescue.

A second miracle is also occurring as millions of people around the world put aside their differences for a little while to witness and rejoice in the rescue of these 33 miners.   For a little while the world is one and a marvelous, if short-lived, bit of brotherhood is experienced.   For one beautiful day the hatred is forgotten as we all experience the same joy as each rescue happens.   For a few hours or a day the world seems to all want the same thing -- the safe rescue of 33 men we don't know and will never meet.

It's at times like these that one can see that there might be hope for the human race, because we can see that mankind is capable of rising above the hatred and greed to share hope and joy.   It's just too bad that the world needs a tragedy and remarkable rescue to come together like this, and that in a short time the feeling of togetherness and hope will disappear.  

But in spite of the wonderful rescue, we should not overlook the fact that this tragedy should never have happened and the incredible rescue should not have been needed.   This was an over-produced and unsafe mine and had only one way to get in and out of it.   There should have not only been a second way in and out, but the mine should have been closed until it was shown to be safe.   Neither of those things happened, and that is a crime -- a crime that can be attributed to greed.

I'm not trying to pick on Chile.   There are unsafe mines all over the world, including here in the United States.   They are unsafe because their corporate owners consider making ever-larger profits more important than the lives of the workers they employ.   And there are politicians willing to let those corporate owners ignore or short-circuit mine safety.   A perfect example is a current senate candidate in West Virginia who has campaigned on opposing government safety standards for mines.

My hope is that this miracle being witnessed tonight will bring forward a new will to demand and establish adequate safety standards for all types of mines -- both in this country and elsewhere.   It is time that everyone recognize that corporate profits are not more important than human lives.   Greed should never trump life -- not in mines or in any other type of work environment.

I hope that will be the case, but I don't really expect it will be so.   For years now this country (and much of the world) has been in the grip of an ever-greedier corporatocracy, and those who run the giant national and international corporations are concerned only with larger salaries, dividends and bonuses.   Human lives and fines for safety violations are nothing more than a cost of doing business to them.   We have watched them ignore dire scientific warnings of man-made global climate change.   Why should we expect them to care about the lives of their employees when they show so little care about the entire planet?

That's what I think.   I hope I'm wrong, but so far I've seen no evidence of that.