Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Latin America deserves better than a border wall (Barf Alert)
Houston Chronicle ^ | Aug. 18, 2008 | OSCAR ARIAS SANCHEZ

Posted on 08/19/2008 11:38:38 AM PDT by 3AngelaD

The designation this summer of $465 million in U.S. aid to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America — along with the valuable cross-border dialogue that helped bring about this Merida Initiative — is a step in the right direction....But given the urgency of the problems we face, this step is disappointingly small...The Merida Initiative is stingy by any standard but especially by U.S. standards

Fighting drug traffickers is not only a Latin American responsibility, it is also an American responsibility...Like all developed nations, the U.S. must confront the fact that no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others....drugs and illegal immigration...are symptoms, not diseases. The disease itself, the cause of these visible effects, is poverty in the Western Hemisphere's developing nations...poverty creates fertile ground for drug trafficking. It is poverty that sends so many legal and illegal immigrants over U.S. borders.... This disease could be countered by investing..According to recent estimates, the country is spending $3 million per mile to build a fence along its border with Mexico designed to keep out illegal immigrants seeking opportunities they cannot find at home. But for every mile of that fence, 2,500 young Latin Americans could receive monthly $100 grants to cover the costs of staying in school so they can get good jobs. For every mile of that fence, 15,000 children could receive Internet-capable laptop computers from MIT's Media Lab, enabling them to join the globalized world rather than falling behind. The possibilities go on and on...

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico
KEYWORDS: aliens; antiamericanism; blameamerica; borderfence; extortion; illegalimmigration; latinamerica; openborders; starkravingsocialism; unmitigatedgall; wod
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last
So now all hempispheric poverty is our fault, not the result of their disfunctional governments, and we are supposed to pay to fix it. This is going in my unmitigated gall file.
1 posted on 08/19/2008 11:38:39 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

Oscar Arias is a lefty of the “hold hands and sing kum-ba-ya” variety. You have many such people in Costa Rica (which is a welfare state/tourist park/retirement center rather than a country).


2 posted on 08/19/2008 11:40:56 AM PDT by Clemenza (No Comment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

The article misspelled mierda.


3 posted on 08/19/2008 11:41:35 AM PDT by steve8714 (Curtis Strange ruined a man better than himself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: 3AngelaD
...Like all developed nations, the U.S. must confront the fact that no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others

All these problems Latin America has inflected on themselves with their tendency to look for a savior in some caudillo like Chavez, Peron, etc, lack of rule of law, and anti-capitalist attitudes. Only when these attitudes change, which would require a major shift in culture, will Latin America enjoy a semblance of prosperity.

5 posted on 08/19/2008 11:43:07 AM PDT by C19fan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
Latin America deserves better than a border wall

Let's play one of my favorite games: "Agree with the title of a leftist article." The prerequisite is that you can't read the article first.

Yes Latin America deserves better than that. Its people must choose leaders who believe in personal freedom, property rights, the free market and eliminating government corruption and nepotism. Quality of life will increase, eliminating the current need for us to build a wall. Unfortunately, the people in Latin America tend to vote for socialists who ruin their economies, or allow dictators to take over and loot their economies.

6 posted on 08/19/2008 11:43:38 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

America deserves better than to be overrun by illegals who aren’t interested in becoming Americans...


7 posted on 08/19/2008 11:45:58 AM PDT by bcsco (Contact McCain today. NO to pro-choice VP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
Latin America deserves better than a border wall

Of course they deserve better than a border wall! They also deserve a mine field north of that wall with snipers posted at regular intervals. If mines are too cruel then perhaps a mountain lion habitat in the same area would work.

8 posted on 08/19/2008 11:46:43 AM PDT by mindjam (Is it time to play cowboys and mexicans yet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
“Our countries are working together to fight transnational gangs. And the President (Berger) was right – I suggested we think about this issue regionally. You’ve got to understand that these gangs are able to move throughout Central America and up through Mexico into our own country, and therefore, we’ve got to think regionally and act regionally.”

President George W. Bush, March 12, 2007 Guatemala City

Then why haven't you put troops on the border instead of putting the very people who are trying to stop this in jail (Ramos and Compean)?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 posted on 08/19/2008 11:48:56 AM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: 3AngelaD

Apparently, drug trafficking, just like AIDS, is caused by a lack of funding.


11 posted on 08/19/2008 11:53:47 AM PDT by ikka
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mindjam

....with mines & snipers? I like the way that sounds.

12 posted on 08/19/2008 11:54:04 AM PDT by DogBarkTree (The correct word isn't "immigrant" when what they are doing is "invading".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

Latin America deserves better than the communist thugs that they have for leaders...


13 posted on 08/19/2008 11:54:06 AM PDT by xcamel (Conservatives start smart, and get rich, liberals start rich, and get stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

So Oscar is basically saying “Don’t build a wall, just send us the money”.


14 posted on 08/19/2008 11:54:48 AM PDT by ozzymandus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

It’s like a gated community — to keep the criminals out.


15 posted on 08/19/2008 11:54:56 AM PDT by Dagny&Hank
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others....

No kidding.

drugs and illegal immigration...are symptoms, not diseases. The disease itself, the cause of these visible effects, is poverty...

He needs to read Hernando de Soto. You can't understand the causes of poverty if you don't understand the causes of wealth. The key to a prosperous society is simple, if difficult to give birth to.

It requires rule of law, first and foremost.

It requires individual freedom, so that men are free to do what they know to do, to make decisions as they themselves know to make them.

It requires legal clarity, so that all sides of a dispute know what the legal ramifications are.

It requires a transparent and honest court system, so that everyone rich and poor alike can accumulate the fruit of their labor and see their assets protected. Land needs to be protected with legal titles, and those titles need to be respected. This is one of the most important issues; in much of latin america the poor do not have title to their land, and can not accumulate wealth because of it.

A populist dictator who seizes and redistributes wealth is the worst thing that can happen, because the only way to be protect your assets in such a system is to have friends in high places, which completely undoes rule of law and all the protections that are necessary for anyone to accumulate wealth. Populism causes oligarchy, it guarantees it. Every time. Populism makes oligarchy necessary.

This writer doesn't know that, so he doesn't understand his own history, how generation after generation, revolution after revolution, they always find themselves right back at square one. Their solutions to the problem are the cause of the problem.

16 posted on 08/19/2008 11:55:55 AM PDT by marron
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mindjam

My thoughts exactly. Senior Sanchez and his bleeding heart world humanistic tenor can bite me. I don’t care about the plight of the average Mexican - that job is reserved for Mexican government.


17 posted on 08/19/2008 11:59:18 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
Fighting drug traffickers is not only a Latin American responsibility, it is also an American responsibility...Like all developed nations, the U.S. must confront the fact that no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others....drugs and illegal immigration...are symptoms, not diseases.

The Mexican government must stamp out corruption among the Mexican government, Mexican police, and Mexican military. End the crossings by the Mexican military escorting Mexican drug smugglers NOW.

If you give them more money, it is just going to feed more corrupt officials.

18 posted on 08/19/2008 12:00:27 PM PDT by weegee (The higher taxes that Obama demands of Americans are 'Above my Pay Grade'.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marron

There is a man who is RICHER than Bill Gates living in Mexico. The money is there. It isn’t America’s fault or responsibility.


19 posted on 08/19/2008 12:01:18 PM PDT by weegee (The higher taxes that Obama demands of Americans are 'Above my Pay Grade'.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: steve8714

Boca sucia.


20 posted on 08/19/2008 12:01:28 PM PDT by 3AngelaD (They screwed up their own countries so bad they had to leave, and now they're here screwing up ours)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson