Análisis histórico de la Defensa colombiana
Alejandro Magnasco Matías, GEES
Septiembre 8 2008

                                                                                                     El valor estratégico de la República de Colombia en el marco regional de Sudamérica (y en el mundo podría decirse) es sumamente importante por la dotación de recursos que dis-pone así como por su posición geo-gráfica: Por un lado, posee acceso a la región del Amazonas y su impor-tancia por los recursos naturales estratégicos allí presentes, como la biodiversidad, y que en el siglo XXI serán altamente codiciados y causa de muchos conflictos que podrían derivar en guerras.
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21st Century Socialism in Latin America                             Michael Radu, Foreign Policy Research Institute                                             Agosto, 2008 

With Washington now preoccupied with the coming presidential elections, and having been virtually asleep on Latin America throughout the Bush administration, the strategic and political map of that region is deteriorating dramatically. A successful decades-long ideological and propaganda campaign by an unreconstructed Marxist-Leninist Left, centered upon the radicalization of racial politics and the ever present anti- Americanism and greased by high energy prices, led to the formation of a growing bloc of militant “socialist” regimes in the region, most prominently Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. These four countries’ influence is spreading, mostly through what could only be described as bribes (i.e., oil subsidies) in the case of some Caribbean islands as well as Honduras; the seeping out of racial policies from Bolivia to neighboring Peru; and the dependence on Venezuelan economic aid that Argentina has willingly assumed. Meanwhile, an increasingly splintered and discredited Mexican Left has become more radical as its popular support wanes. Brazil, the regional superpower, plays an ambiguous role. Its military is worried about the security threat posed by Venezuela’s massive weapons acquisitions, the activities of the Colombian narco-Marxist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces), and the general instability around its borders; Brazil’s major companies are threatened in Bolivia, but its president uses rhetoric encouraging to the “progressive” regimes in Caracas and La Paz                                   ver más>>

In Havana, Waiting for Obama or for Putin?                  Rens Lee, Foreign Policy Research Institute                                      Agosto 2008  

As I left Havana earlier this month, Cuba was eagerly awaiting the United States’ November presidential elections. The buzz around the capital, reportedly from a highly placed source, was that Barack Obama has already talked to Raul Castro by phone. Obama has publicly stated that if elected, he would immediately ease restrictions on Cuban American travel and remittances placed by the Bush administration in 2004, but maintain the embargo, which has been in place since 1961, until there is evidence of Cuban democratization. Indeed, no president could unilaterally lift the U.S. embargo—the main sticking point in U.S.-Cuban relations—because U.S. law (the 1996 Helms-Burton Act) mandates preconditions for this, such as legalization of all political activity and departure of the Castro brothers from the political scene, that Cuba finds unacceptable. But a new president who is open to dialogue with America’s enemies could prevail on a solidly democratic Congress to amend or abrogate the law and thus un-freeze the U.S.-Cuban relationship. The embargo bans most U.S. trade with and all investment in Cuba. While damaging the country’s economy, it has obviously failed in its intended purpose of getting rid of the Castro regime. Cuba remains a police state in which the population is subject to a repressive control and, excepting favored few, lives at or close to the subsistence level. (Interestingly, the police are among the best paid professionals in Cuba, earning almost twice the miserly average wage of $17 per month). Cuba-watchers debate whether lifting the embargo and flooding the country with U.S. tourists and businesspersons would erode the legitimacy of the current regime or breathe new life into it. Yet there are very good strategic reasons why America should not continue its policy of isolating Cuba, even in the absence of positive signs of democratization on the island.                                                         ver más>>

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