Interviews from Washington - US/Latin American Relations

This week's edition of Interviews from Washington looks at the current state of US-Latin American relations in light of the upcoming Summit of the Americas, slated later this week in Panama City. Program host Jorge Gestoso interviews Manuel Perez Rocha, analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies. They discuss, among other topics, Washington's widely applauded opening to Cuba at the same time that the White House has adopted what Perez calls an incoherent and coercive policy toward Venezuela; Obama's scheduled meetings with Caribbean and Central American presidents ahead of the Summit; the role of China in the region and its relation to US designs in the area; prospects for US-American relations under the Republican controlled Congress; the challenges facing Latin America on the economic, social, and political level; repression in Mexico and the hypocrisy surrounding human rights in the hemisphere; the demise of the Organization of American States and new regional alternatives to traditional US hegemony; and what can be expected from the Summit of the Americas. teleSUR