Word: gringo
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...convenient and long-standing tradition south of the border is for Mexico to blame its problems on the U.S. It can often be justified when the matter is the drug-trafficking violence now terrorizing much of Mexico, which is powered in large part by the insatiable gringo demand for drugs, the relentless flow of high-powered weapons from the U.S. and the just-as-chronic laundering of drug cash north of the border. As Washington hyperventilates over the threat of Mexico's narco-carnage spilling into the U.S., it can't ignore America's role in its neighbor's trafficking...
...when he burned out in the corporate world, Tompkins took his fortune, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and began steadily buying acre after acre of threatened virgin forest in Chile. But he met with considerable resistance from the Chilean government and media: the idea of a rich gringo going down to South America to protect nature, not exploit it, seemed so absurd to post-Pinochet Chileans that they suspected Tompkins was up to something...
...result, how the U.S. is perceived in Latin America resonates more robustly with the wider world today. Bush certainly found that out when the international community, in ways rarely seen during the gringo interventionist days of the Cold War, condemned the White House's early backing of the 2002 Venezuela coup. Likewise, good relations with leaders like Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, perhaps Latin America's most respected head of state today for his smart blend of capitalism and socialism, make a more positive impression in Europe, Asia and Africa...
...threw the first one." So while Saab says Latin pols like himself have "reasonably positive expectations" about Obama, they're "skeptical." But even if the U.S. doesn't give Saab a visa while Obama is President, a sufficient number of Latin Americans are likely to see enough change in gringo policy to soften their resentment toward the U.S. And if Obama is smart, he'll see that as a good start instead of an afterthought...
...remittances to Cuba. That could (and should) be the first step toward dismantling the ill-conceived, 46-year-old embargo (which Obama surely knows is also the aim of many pro-business Republicans in Washington). Either way, such gestures make it harder for the Castros to rail against gringo imperialism. For his part, Raúl Castro recently told actor Sean Penn in an interview for the Nation magazine that he and Obama "must meet" in a neutral place "and begin to solve our problems...