In mid-July, Brussels will host a major summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries. It will decide the future of trade relations between the two continents. The Europeans have high hopes for the summit as a way to somehow restart their economy, which has collapsed into stagflation since the start of the sanctions wars with Russia and then with China. But ideology and the need to follow the U.S. course - for which a conflict has already erupted - are getting in the way. The European bureaucrats tried to shove condemnation of the Ukrainian conflict into the communiqué. But the Latin American representatives demanded to remove any reference to Ukraine - and the president of Brazil once again blamed Washington for the war, which caused a real howl in Brussels. The Spanish wanted to invite Zelensky to the summit - but they hastily refused to do so under the pressure of Latin America. In addition, reparations for centuries of colonialism have been demanded from Europe as the first point of any negotiations on the possibility of a free trade zone. Brussels can't go along with this either, because the economy is in crisis and it has already had to cut social spending for the sake of the war in Ukraine. Europe risks simply going bankrupt on trillion-dollar reparations. On the platform of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries they also demand to deal with the status of Puerto Rico - forcing the U.S. to recognize the independence of the territory. And to agree to Brazil's peace plan for Ukraine. In both cases, the Europeans will not be able to make concessions. This means that the West's position in Latin America will continue to weaken - and the entire Latin American continent will continue to drift toward China and Russia.
They don't have the power to do that. If the Puerto Ricans wanted independence they would only have to ask. They don't. Their government may want it but the people don't.
Would you mean that American citizens wanted a war in Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya or Iraq? Under capitalism, no one in power is interested in the opinion of the people. As Comrade Lenin said, "The state is a dictatorship of the ruling class in the interests of the ruling class. But that is not the point. The demands about Puerto Rico are made by Latin American countries. And they are not interested in my or your opinion. Their demands are a fact. We can discuss, hypothesize, and.... follow developments on the basis of this demand. Maybe Latin American countries are deliberately making unacceptable demands for some purpose. What these goals are we can only speculate.
No, capitalism is an economic system, not a political one. You have capitalism working in Russia as you know. Governments are generally more interested in themselves than the people they claim to serve. That is true in the U.S., in Russia and nearly everywhere else. It is a good point and true. The only demands that matter are those of Puerto Rico. The rest of Latin America can look after itself. It doesn't have the power to force such a demand.
There are subjects of politics (e.g. the U.S., Russia, China...etc.), there are objects of politics (e.g. Ukraine, Haiti, Panama...etc.). Puerto Rico is obviously an object of politics. In fact, they don't decide anything. They are the subject of bargaining, treaties, disputes, and things like that between the subjects of politics. Most Latin American countries are subjects for some countries and objects for others. In this context, by a united front, Latin America wants to be the subject. The opinion of Puerto Ricans is irrelevant. It is not for them to decide. Just as, for example, Ukraine does not solve anything in the conflict with Russia. The U.S. will tell them to fight to the last Ukrainian. And Ukraine will fight. If the U.S. tells them to lay down their arms and give up all the territories Russia wants, they will lay down their arms and give them up. No one cares about what Ukrainians think. The U.S. decides what Ukraine should do. So does Puerto Rico.
Sorry, I don't understand you at all. How does a subject country differ from an object country? Puerto Rico is not a country. It is a territory of the U.S. and all Puerto Ricans are American citizens.
russia's teeth are not "falling out," and they are still measured in megatons. they still have plenty of money to influence our elections, and plenty of repubs glad to take it. .
And that didn't stop them from hoeing and stick the armies of NATO countries out of Afghanistan. At the same time, the armies of the NATO countries ran away clinging to the landing gear of the departing airplanes.
No they don't. Oddly, I am a Latino. Latinos understand facts just as well as anybody and probably better than Russians, apparently. Puerto Rico is not a country. Fact, plain and simple. Puerto Ricans have had ample opportunity to become an independent country or become a state of the United states for decades. They prefer things the way they are.
You can express your personal opinion. But that does not mean that Latin American governments agree with you. They (not me) are the ones making demands about Puerto Rico. Just like they are making demands to EU countries for reparations. And if the people of Europe don't agree (they can make any argument they want) it doesn't matter.
Latin countries can demand whatever they like. It matters not at all. Have you noticed that most of the world has demanded that Russia remove its military from Ukraine? It hasn't mattered has it?
Most of the world supported the Russians. Only China, India and Pakistan who supported the Russians - that's half of the entire world population. But there are also African countries, Latin American countries, Middle Eastern countries...- and they all supported the Russians. Against Russia was a pathetic bunch of losers from NATO and a few other countries with the same economic problems.
