Obama's Latin policies in play

[AlphaCentauri]

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
[email protected]
There is a fierce behind-the-scenes battle for influence over presumptive Democratic candidate Barack Obama's Hispanic and Latin American agenda, and some Democratic strategists say that its outcome could determine the result of the November elections.

Some Obama backers in South Florida, in particular, are especially miffed at what they see as excessive power by labor-union-tied, left-leaning Mexican-American leaders at Obama's Chicago headquarters over the campaign's nationwide Hispanic and Latin American policy strategies.

In a confidential July 4 memo sent to 25 prominent South Florida Hispanics, former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre -- well respected in nationwide Democratic circles -- called for creation of a ''South Florida Hispanic policy advisory group'' to counterbalance what he perceives as excessive micro-management of state campaigns by Obama's Chicago headquarters.

In an interview with The Miami Herald, Ferre stated that in an effort to win Florida -- which may be the key swing state in which Hispanics may decide the election -- his group would also try to steer the Obama campaign away from criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, and the pending free-trade deal with Colombia.

Obama's stands against NAFTA and the free-trade deal with Colombia have been applauded in some Midwestern industrialized states that have lost factories to Mexico, but are supported by Florida's business community and many of the state's Hispanics.

Similarly, Obama's support for farm subsidies has been welcomed in U.S. farm states but is decried as unfair by virtually all Latin American countries and many U.S. Latinos.

Ferre's memo was written shortly after the Obama campaign appointed Cuauhtemoc ''Temo'' Figueroa, a Mexican American with a labor-union background, as head of its national Hispanic vote-getting effort in Obama's Chicago headquarters. Figueroa, whose parents were farm-worker organizers, was a top official of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

''In the inner circle of candidate Obama's campaign there is no one who has deep knowledge or shown interest in Latin America or Hispanics in the United States,'' Ferre wrote in his memo.

Senior Obama foreign-policy advisor Tony Lake ''has never shown major knowledge or interest in Latin America,'' he wrote.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/610762.html



+++++**+*+*+*+*
Knowing Oppenheimer's republican links, I could expect him to say Latinos will elect the next pesident in florida.