Andres Oppenheimer
Like in every election season, when legislators compete to make headlines, there are some bizarre ideas being discussed in the
The bill, sponsored by House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs chairman
It notes that the
The
I called Mack's office and asked his aides whether he is proposing U.S.-led targeted assassinations in
Subcommittee minority leader Rep.
A second bill sponsored by Mack, and passed by the same House subcommittee on the same day, calls for cutting by 20 percent the U.S. funding for the 34-country
U.S. taxpayers should not pay almost 60 percent of the budget for an organization that works against freedom and democracy, Mack said.
Engel, who opposed the bill, says the proposed legislation would be counterproductive, especially after Latin American countries recently created a new regional diplomatic community, known as CELAC, that does not include
Both bills now go to the full
My opinion: These bills are just publicity stunts by Mack, who is running for a
Still, these are dangerous things to be playing with. While the OAS bill may just be an extreme way of putting pressure on the organization to enforce its own rules for the collective defense of democracy, the
That would be a wrong diagnosis that could lead to disastrous medicine. Aside from the fact that, unlike
U.S. politicians will demand reducing intelligence cooperation with
With 2012 being an election year both in
If the Republicans' idea is to supplement Plan Merida with additional resources, that's great. But let's stop this nonsense about
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