Barack Hussein Obama . Forty-fourth President of the United States of America . Re-elected to his post in the presidential elections of November 6 , 2012 . He was the first African-American president in the entire history of that country.
Obama was among those invited to the Bilderberg Club before being elected president of the United States, attending the June 2008 meeting in Virginia , USA, five months before his electoral triumph and his victory had already been predicted since the 2007 meeting. .
In October of 2009 Barack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize , which led to the filmmaker known Michael Moore to write an open letter to the president already had the prize, but still had merit.
Although at the reception of the award he gave a speech inspired by the words of the writer George Orwell , where Obama declared: “war is peace”, in December 2009 he announced the dispatch of 30,000 additional soldiers to Afghanistan .
Almost at the end of his term, Obama took a radical turn in his policy towards Cuba by announcing on December 17 , 2014 the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
Biography
His family and first years of life
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4 , 1961 in the city of Honolulu , Hawaii .
Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr, had met his mother Stanley Ann Dunham in 1959 , at a Russian language course organized at the University of Hawaii. Barack Obama Sr. was among those selected to participate in an exchange between the East Africa region and the United States , an exchange that was to incorporate 280 African students to different American universities.
The objective of the operation was to train and indoctrinate future agents who should exert their influence in Africa, a continent that at that time was becoming a confrontational terrain between the United States, the Soviet Union and China , powers that were trying to win over the regimes. of African countries that had just achieved or were about to achieve independence.
Obama’s father left Hawaii in 1962 to study at Harvard and divorced Dunham in 1964 . He remarried a Harvard student, Ruth Niedensand, a Jewish American, and returned with her to Kenya , where they had two children. That union also ended in divorce.
Obama Sr. worked in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance and Transportation , as well as in an oil company. He died in a car accident in 1982 , and leading Kenyan politicians attended his funerals.
In 1967 Obama’s mother moved with him to Indonesia to meet with Lolo Soetoro . Soetoro had met Ann Dunham in 1965, at the University of Hawaii , when young Barack was only 4 years old. In 1965, General Suharto had called on Lolo Soetoro to join the military high command and help plan, with the help of the CIA , the genocide of pro-communist Indonesians and Sino-Indonesians throughout the country.
In 1967 , following his arrival in Indonesia with Obama junior, Dunham taught English at the United States embassy in Jakarta on behalf of USAID , a large-scale organization that served as a front for secret CIA activities in Indonesia and throughout Southeast Asia, in countries like Laos, southern Vietnam, and Thailand .
During his stay in Indonesia, and later in Pakistan , Dunham Soetoro worked for the Ford Foundation , the World Bank , the Asian Development Bank , the Rakyat Bank (the government-owned Indonesian public bank) and for USAID.
Education
Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he was ten years old. He then returned to live in Honolulu with his maternal grandparents and in 1971 he was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, where he remained until his graduation from high school in 1979 .
After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles and began his studies at Occidental College for a period of two years. In this private center, he led, recognizes in his memories, a lavish playful lifestyle in parties, alcohol and drugs, of which he tried marijuana and cocaine , the latter experience in August 2008 , in a religious forum evangelicals, valued as his “greatest moral failure.”
Later, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City , with a degree in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts from Columbia in 1983 , then went on to work for the Business International Corporation and the New York Public Interest Research Group, a company known as the CIA front. [4]
The work that Barack Obama carried out in that company starting in 1983 coincides with the espionage missions on behalf of the CIA that his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, had carried out during the 1960s, after the coup in Indonesia , as work for other institutions that also served as a front for the CIA, such as the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ford Foundation.
In late 1988 , he entered Harvard Law School and in his first year as a student he was selected as editor of the Harvard Law Review, due to his qualifications and a writing contest. In his second year of career, he was elected president of said publication, and served as a full-time volunteer, serving as editor-in-chief, and supervising the staff of 80 editors. The fact that he was chosen in February 1990 as the first African-American president of the law supplement was widely covered by the media and detailed biographical reviews were made.
Political career
In 1995, Obama had a broad agenda of contacts in the grassroots social movements and had many friends and some valuable mentors, such as Judge and former Federal Congressman Abner Mikva and State Senator Emil Jones, who had been following in his footsteps and giving him advice.
In September 1995 he launched his nomination for state senator for the 13th district of Illinois . Obama arrived without opponents in his party the election of the 5 of November of 1996 with an overwhelming 82.2% of the vote defeated his opponents in the Republican Party and the so – called Party of Harold Washington, taking the seat in the upper house of the Illinois General Assembly. He renewed his legislature on November 3 , 1998, extending his term until 2003 .
The 21 of March of 2000 he competed in the Democratic primary for the nomination of the candidate for the party’s 1st district of Illinois in the House of Representatives of the US Congress being defeated by Bobby Rush , a former local leader of the Black Panthers .
After this failed attempt, Obama strove to improve relations with black politicians and church leaders who had supported Rush, and who distrusted him for his racial miscegenation and university ways.
As co-chair of the Joint Committee on Administrative Regulations, in 2001 he supported Republican Governor George Ryan’s proposal for a regulation of payday loans and a regulation of abusive mortgage financing practices with the aim of preventing legal proceedings. of foreclosure.
In 2003 , he sponsored and led the unanimous and bipartisan approval of a law to control racial discrimination or “racial profiling” (arbitrary detentions based on the racial characteristics of the suspect), which requires police officers to register the race of the drivers it pulls over; and another law that made Illinois the first state to enforce the order to videotape homicide interrogations.
In January 2003, he became chair of the Illinois Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
Obama launched his candidacy for the United States Senate on January 21 , 2003 , encouraged among others by Jesse Jackson . On March 16, 2004, Obama won the proclamation. Becoming the top favorite for the position of outgoing Republican Peter Fitzgerald led him to become the inaugural speaker at the Democratic National Convention, held in Boston from July 26-29 and officially proclaiming the candidacy of John Kerry , Senator from Massachusetts. , to the White House in the November presidential elections .
On November 2 , while Kerry lost to Bush , Obama won the seat with 70% of the vote.
Obama was sworn in as a senator on 4 of January of 2005 , becoming the fifth African – American senator in the history of the United States and the third to be popularly elected. In 2008 Congress.org ranked him eleventh among the most powerful senators in the United States. The 16 of November of 2008 , Obama resigned from the Senate to pursue the presidential transition period.
Race to the presidency
Barack Obama, as Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield , Illinois, on February 10 , 2007 .
The 27 of August of 2008 he became the nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election is the first African American in US history to run for president by a major party. On August 23, 2008, the Barack Obama campaign confirmed that Joe Biden of Delaware would be the vice presidential nominee.
The 4 of November of 2008 , projections indicated that Obama had won the election, making it the President – elect and the first African American elected as President of the United States.
His constitutional election to the presidential office was completed with the Electoral College meeting on December 15, 2008, and subsequent certification of the electoral college vote made during the joint session of the United States Congress on January 8 , 2009 .
The entire Obama presidential campaign was based primarily on messages of “hope and change.” One of his promises alluded to the closure of the torture prison at the illegal Guantanamo naval base . In his speeches, he also promised to promote health reform for those most in need, the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and an immigration reform that would benefit thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
During his campaign, Obama also spoke out for the lifting of restrictions on travel to Cuba for Cubans residing in the United States, although he did not refer to the right of US citizens to do the same.
Presidency
In February of 2009 at a press conference Obama made clear his views about US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regarding Afghanistan, he responded that it would be a tough challenge, while noting that his government would review the Pentagon policy that prohibited filming and photographing the coffins wrapped in the US flag of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Days after taking office, Obama’s first (known) military actions were two missile attacks inside a Pakistani border province , where 22 people were killed, including women and children.
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the US $ 787 billion Economic Stimulus Act with the aim of remedying the effects of the economic recession caused by the mortgage crisis. The law was approved by Congress after arduous negotiations with the House of Representatives and the Senate. In August, in a Gallup agency poll conducted with “USA Today” 41% of Americans believed that the program had improved the economy, compared to 33% who considered it had no effect and 24% who thinks the country’s crisis had worsened.
In June 2009, after the coup against constitutional president Manuel Zelaya in Honduras , Obama called for respect for democratic norms, the rule of law, and the foundations of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Despite calling the coup “illegal”, Obama did not explicitly request the reinstatement of the constitutional president or suspend military assistance to the Central American country, as required by law in the event of a coup.
Nor did he mention anything about the Soto Cano military base, which the United States maintains in Honduran territory and which played a fundamental role in the overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya. [13] In a document leaked by WikiLeaks in November 2010, the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa had to acknowledge that the coup was “illegal and unconstitutional.” The ambassador knew in advance of the coup. [14] It was revealed days before his death by the former minister of the Zelaya administration, Roland Valenzuela, in an interview broadcast by a local radio station in the city of San Pedro Sula.. A few days after these statements, Valenzuela was assassinated in a public place by Carlos Yacamán, who was arrested on Wednesday , September 8 in Miami – not by the FBI but by Immigration – where he had found refuge.
Already in July 2009, 40% of Americans had a very bad opinion of the management of President Barack Obama, and only 29% approved it with enthusiasm, according to a survey by Rasmussen Reports. The report noted that 54% of respondents believed that President George W. Bush was primarily responsible for the problems inherited by Obama.
The proposed replacement prison for Guantanamo was announced by Barack Obama in December 2009 and dubbed “Gitmo North.” [15] Since the government announced its intention to transfer dozens of prisoners who were in the detention center in Cuba , to a high security prison in the US state of Illinois , numerous criticisms and protests have been heard. The protesters argued that having dangerous prisoners on American soil would attract terrorist attacks and other threats to national security.
The US Supreme Court subsequently rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Base prisoners , asking that they be allowed to prosecute senior Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The Barack Obama administration had asked the Supreme Court to reject the appeal.
Faced with this policy, the United Nations Organization Special Rapporteur for Torture, Manfred Nowak, made public his criticism of President Barack Obama and accused him of not having investigated the allegations of torture that occurred under the mandate of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Nowak recalled that the United States, as a member of the UN Convention against Torture, has very clear legal obligations that stipulate that in the event of reports or reports of torture, independent and effective investigations must be carried out.
In January 2010, Obama’s party, the Democrats, lost the supermajority of 60 (out of 100) votes required to ensure that any legislative initiative is successful. The party even lost the seat of Senator Edward Kennedy , which gave an alarming warning for the legislative elections of November of that year. [18] Voters argued that Obama had failed to deliver on his fundamental promise to bring about change and further believed that the president had favored the banks too much.
In the midterm elections held on November 2, 2010, the Democrats lost a majority in both legislative bodies, the Republicans’ control of the House of Representatives and their conquest of several governorships.
Internal politics
The Obama administration pulled the US out of the worst crisis in 80 years and reestablished the parameters of the market and the standard of living for many American families. He established an Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, with which he reduced the number of Americans without health insurance from 16% to 8.9% from 2010 to 2016.
From 2008 to 2016, it reduced foreign energy dependence from 11,115,000 barrels of oil per day to 4,711,000, and strengthened and encouraged clean and renewable energy programs, as well as the responsible use of nuclear energy. He created nearly 16 million new jobs in the private and public sectors in the last 81 months of his tenure, thus leaving American society with a high level of approval and very well, despite criticism.
Immigration policy
One of the promises that Obama broke was the reform on migration when on February 3 , 2010 the president delivered a speech in which he said:
“We must continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system – to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who operates by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”
In March, immigrant advocacy groups in the United States denounced that deportations soared 50% under the government of Barack Obama, who they asked to commit to immigration reform. The groups called on the president for an immediate halt to deportations and his leadership to advance immigration reform. Initiatives for reforms of this type failed in 2006 and 2007 .
In the United States it was estimated in April 2010, more than 12 million residents without papers.
Obama Nationality Controversy
Obama was summoned to appear on 26 of January of 2012 before a court in the city of Atlanta , according to an order issued by a judge of the town. The request is part of the investigations that are being carried out on the US nationality of the president, questioned by several Republican political sectors in order to disqualify him and prevent his re-election race.
Environmental policy
In December 2009 he was held in Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change of the UN and its resolutions were listed as “anticlimax” by the Washington Times, who lambasted the “unsuccessful” discussions of world leaders. The historical leader of the Cuban Revolution reflected in one of his reflections Obama’s speech at that event, cataloging it as:
… misleading and demagogic, full of ambiguities, which did not imply any binding commitment and ignored the Kyoto Framework Convention .
The Summit was the scene of protests by peaceful protesters who were violently repressed by the police.
Bird seriously affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
The 20 of April of 2010 , an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico , causing a major loss of oil.
Obama visited the Gulf of Mexico on May 2 , due to visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4 . He began a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety regulations, after a review by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and concurrent hearings in Congress. On May 27 , it announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending a regulatory review.
On October 7, the National Oil Spill Commission pointed out that the administration was too optimistic about the capabilities of the British Petroleum company to solve the problem and that the US government concealed from the population the real dimension of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and discussed what figures to publish.
Health reform bill
“I’m telling you this guy is dangerous. He’s never lost. He won’t understand… like ‘Who are you to question me?’ Hey, this guy is almost an imperial president now. When he starts to lose and people start questioning him and sticking him to the wall, he’s not going to know how to react. “
Glenn Beck (political commentator, writer and right-wing activist) referring to Barack Obama
Obama asked Congress to pass health care reform, a key promise in his campaign and a legislative goal that aims to expand health coverage to all American citizens.
The 14 of July of 2009 the Democrats in the House of Representatives filed a bill of health reform and Obama had the expectation that Congress authorize the plan before year – end. One of the components of the health system reform project is the creation of optional insurance for those who do not have the possibility of accessing private insurance, through which it seeks to reduce expenses and improve the quality of public health.
After losing the absolute majority in the upper house and to carry out his health reform, the president reformulated in February 2010 his health plan that aims to reduce the cost of health insurance for families and small businesses, and to try health coverage for 31 million Americans who lack it. The main novelty of the proposal in that it did not include the “public option” that was included in the bill of the House of Representatives. The new Obama proposal was slow to receive rejection by the Republican party from Dave Camp, who assured that this project “is not a serious attempt to address the concerns of Americans” and that “it does not include important political changes driven by the Republicans”.
On March 21, the House of Representatives, after a week of high tension and intense negotiation, passed a health care reform bill that would provide insurance to millions of Americans. With this victory, the Democrats celebrated a historic event, after arguing that it was not acceptable that some 40 million Americans did not have health insurance, and that some 18,000 die a year due to lack of access to those services.
The reform did not include at least 6.6 million undocumented immigrants without health insurance in the United States who represent 15 percent of the entire US population without health protection. Although the initial House bill allowed undocumented immigrants to enter the options market, as long as they did not receive official subsidy, the White House version tightened that clause and excluded them completely.
Republicans quickly riposted in a radio address that pointed out that while the US health system required change, the initiative forged by Democrats and promulgated by President Barack Obama was not the appropriate solution.
On December 13, 2010, a federal judge in Virginia struck down a key element of Obama’s health care reform, finding it unconstitutional. United States District Judge Henry Hudson ruled that the government cannot force Americans to purchase mandatory health insurance or penalties.
At the end of June 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice declared the White House initiative constitutional that seeks to extend health coverage to more than 30 million people without this service, although another 20 million would still remain outside of those Benefits.
The high court endorsed the entry into force of the legal instrument and also authorized the Government to impose a tax on those without insurance, one of the main elements of the controversial law that empowers the government to tax those who do not buy it after 2014 ..
The United States House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, ruled on July 11 against the implemented health law, despite the fact that the decision must fail in the Senate, due to the majority of seats in the Democratic Party .
Foreign policy
He had great successes in managing foreign policy, including the elimination of the terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, the nuclear treaty with Iran and the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba on December 17, 2014.
Iraq and Afghanistan wars
In December 2009 Obama ordered an additional 30,000 soldiers to go to war in Afghanistan , while promising to begin the withdrawal of US forces in 18 months. To justify his actions he said in a primetime television speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point :
“We must maintain pressure on al-Qaida… We must deny al-Qaida a haven.” “We must reverse the momentum of the Taliban…
And we must strengthen the capacity of the security forces and the government of Afghanistan
Filmmaker Michael Moore had asked Obama not only not to increase the troops deployed to Afghanistan, but to contemplate their withdrawal so as not to disappoint the voters who brought him to the White House. In his letter he stated:
“When we chose you, we weren’t expecting miracles. We weren’t even expecting big changes, but we did expect some. We thought you would stop the madness, the killings, the senseless idea that armed men can reorganize a nation that does not function as a nation and has never done so ”.
“President Obama, it is time to go home.
A poll published by Gallup showed that only 35% of Americans approved of Obama’s handling of the war, while 55% disapproved.
The top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal , was relieved of his post by Gen. David Petraeus , head of the US Central Command, in June 2010 after describing himself as “disappointed” by his first meeting held at the Oval Office with President Obama, who seemed unprepared to him. He also had sarcastic comments about Vice President Joe Biden , White House National Security Advisor General Jim Jones, and other high-ranking officials.
Due to long periods of war, the suicide rate for soldiers in the US military exceeded the civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War in July 2010.
In August 2010 Obama announced the partial withdrawal of US troops in Iraq . The war had cost about 736 billion dollars, more than four thousand invaders killed and about 30 thousand wounded, according to conservative data. The announcement did not mean the definitive withdrawal of the United States from the Asian country, since 50,000 soldiers will remain on the ground under the euphemistic definition of “support and training of the Iraqi security forces.”
Support for Israel
The 19 of February of 2011 the US government vetoed a proposal in the United Nations Security Council for the first time since Obama took office. The text promoted by the Palestinian authority and co-sponsored by more than 120 of the 192 members of the UN. He called for the Council to declare illegal Israeli settlements in the territories occupied since 1967.
Libyan crisis
When demonstrations against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi broke out in February 2011 , Obama strongly supported the protesters, who soon turned into insurgent rebels. By using his armed forces to try to control the situation, the US government began lobbying with its allies, the UN and NATO to catalyze the internal situation in Libya in its interests.
On February 28, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the United States had all ¨the options¨ open in the case of the Libyan crisis , in a clear allusion to the possibility of the use of NATO forces against the government of Muammar Gaddafi , an old enemy of the United States. While Libya was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on March 1 , the United States moved its air and naval assets to the vicinity of the North African country.
Obama instructed thousands of people fleeing the fighting between the rebel forces and the Libyan army to be provided humanitarian aid at the Libyan borders while declaring to the press that the solution to the conflict could only subordinate to the departure from power of the Libyan ruler.
“The violence must stop. Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and must go”
Barack Obama
On March 19, 2011, the United States , France and Great Britain began a military offensive against Libya that only until the morning of March 20 had left at least 64 dead. US President Barack Obama ordered the start of the military actions dubbed the Odyssey of the Dawn , with a “proceed” by phone in the middle of an official meeting with the president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff .
Obama assured in subsequent statements that in no case will US soldiers set foot on Libyan soil.
The Democratic Representative for Ohio Dennis Kucinich, supported by a dozen Democratic and Republican legislators, filed a legal appeal in June for the use of the United States armed forces in a military conflict without the authorization of Congress. In his view, Obama did not respect the War Powers Resolution, federal law of 1973 which states that the government must receive authorization from Congress within 60 days after the start of a military operation abroad.
The president of Bolivia , Evo Morales , asked that the Nobel Peace Prize be withdrawn from his American colleague, Barack Obama, for having “gestated the invasion” of Libya, and that the UN change its acronym to ONI: ” Organization of Invasive Nations ” .
Murder of Bin Laden
The 1 of maypole of 2011 , US President Barack Obama officially announced the death of Osama Bin Laden . [36] The US government says it has DNA evidence confirming that the body is Bin Laden’s. The body was allegedly thrown into the sea.
Obama in a speech given to the nation indicated that he personally asked Leon Panetta , director of the CIA , that the ” assassination or capture of Bin Laden ” be a priority of the agency .Justice has been served, he pointed out.
Obama’s carefully crafted speech to announce Bin Laden’s death states:
“… We know that the worst images are those that were invisible to the world. The empty seat at the table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or father. Parents who will never feel the hug of a child again. About 3,000 citizens fled away from us, leaving a huge hole in our hearts. “
The United States government has also announced that counting terrorism does not end with the death of Osama, so the soldiers abroad will remain in battle despite the demands of the population.
Jason Richardson , a player for the Orlando Magic in the NBA , posted on his Twitter account :
Now that the deaths of Bin Laden and Saddam are confirmed a few years ago, can we bring the troops back home?
Obama decided to keep the images of Osama bin Laden’s body “classified” for reasons of “national security.”
Policy towards Cuba
The 15 of July of 2009 President Barack Obama notified Congress that supendería from the August 1 of that year and for six months the application of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 , which set tough sanctions on Cuba. [40] This is section III of the Helms Burton Act, by which a US company could sue whoever used what it considered its properties nationalized after the Cuban Revolution . The governments of Canada and Mexico enacted laws to counter the effect of the Helms-Burton Act, and the European Unionstated that the extraterritorial provisions it envisaged could not be applied in the EU. For all these reasons, Bill Clinton himself suspended section III of the legislation from the moment of its approval. Since then, all presidents have renewed the suspension, including George W. Bush, who did so 16 times during his eight-year term. Therefore, Barack Obama did not make any decision that had not been made before.
His government exerts pressure on the European Union in order for it to maintain the obsolete Common Position with respect to the Island. These pressures have been joined by the Cuban American National Foundation and European far-right parties.
Obama had to admit in September 2009 his failure to close the detention center at the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base . One of Obama’s first announcements upon assuming the presidency on January 20 was that he would close Guantánamo within a year. White House legal counsel Gregory Craig, in charge of closing the Guantanamo prison, left his post shortly after the failure to pursue the private practice of law.
In January 2010, the Obama administration included Cuba in a new list of alleged countries sponsors of terrorism. Such determination of the administration of President Barack Obama was even criticized by the influential newspaper The Washington Post , which in one of its main columns described it as ridiculous, and stressed that it evidences the need for the White House to transform at once for all his policy towards the Caribbean island. [41]The measure also implied that the Cuban citizens from now on would have to undergo an extra check of their equipment and exhaustive searches before traveling to the United States. Thirteen other countries, with a majority Islamic population, are subject to more rigorous immigration controls when they enter the United States.
The measure against Cuba was harshly criticized by numerous media and people throughout the world for considering it unfair and arbitrary.
A certain group of travelers, however, has preference for their trips to Cuba, including North American citizens. They are people who were in charge, through a complex network of non-governmental organizations and private companies and CIA front companies , of distributing part of the 45 million dollars that in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 were destined to subversion programs against Cuba .
As established by the laws of the United States and of all the countries of the world, in Cuba collaboration with an enemy government is a serious crime. In particular, Cuban law penalizes collaboration with the USAID government program , which was created by the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, with a sentence of up to 20 years . In the past, congressional investigations have uncovered abuses in Cuban subversion funding programs used by government agents in Miami to buy luxury items and exotic foods, such as canned crab meat and Godiva chocolates.
Travel for these purposes had been suspended on December 3, 2009 after the arrest of Alan Phillip Gross, a contractor detained in Cuba while working in a program for subversion on the island, implemented by the administration of George W. Bush and supported by Obama. Gross was accused of the crime of “Acts Against the Independence or Territorial Integrity of the State” and the Prosecutor’s Office requests a sanction of 20 years of deprivation of liberty.
The WikiLeaks website dealt a severe blow to so-called opponents in Cuba by revealing in December 2010 a diplomatic cable sent to Washington in 2009 by the head of the US Interests Office (SINA) in Havana, Jonathan Farrar who characterized these counterrevolutionaries as polarized and disconnected from the reality of their country.
Farrar recognizes that the “opponents” to whom the United States maintains and allocates million-dollar financing to destabilize the island do not represent the Cubans, and also have very little probability of replacing the current authorities of the Caribbean nation. Notwithstanding all of the above, Farrar recommended that the Obama administration continue to support the unmasked mercenaries.
The 14 of January of 2011 Obama ordered a statement that the policies of the Clinton administration on Cuba that had repealed was restituted George W. Bush in 2003 .The communiqué made it clear that the blockade against Cuba remained intact. The measures allowed North American travel to Cuba for academic, educational, cultural and religious purposes, the sending of remittances by North American citizens in limited quantities and the authorization of North American companies to operate direct charter flights to Cuba in limited quantities.
In the first days of March, the United States Department of State released a report in which it recognized the efforts of Cuba in the fight against drug trafficking, and the good results of the island in the fight against smuggling and the production of narcotics. of any type. The report noted that:
“Cuba has continued to demonstrate a commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities (and) in the years to come, better communication and cooperation between the US, its international partners, and Cuba, particularly in the area of tactical and timely information, will likely lead to an increase in contraband interceptions ”
Near the end of his term, Obama took a radical turn in his policy towards Cuba by announcing on December 17 the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States . In the same speech, Obama acknowledged the failure of the US blockade against Cuba by saying:
“We cannot continue doing the same thing and hope to obtain a different result. Trying to push Cuba into the abyss does not benefit the United States or the Cuban people.
Visit to Cuba
The president made a historic visit to Cuba from the 20th to the 22 of March of 2016 , becoming the first president to visit the island after 88 years (before only did Calvin Coolidge in January 1928 to attend the VI Pan American Conference ) and the first sitting president who came to the nation after the triumph of the Revolution
The president’s agenda included a meeting with the staff of the embassy of his country, and tours of the Havana Cathedral, where he was received by Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino , Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana, the Plaza de Armas, the Museum of the City, the Old Square and the Plaza de San Francisco de Asís.
He visited the José Martí Memorial , met with Cuban businessmen or self-employed workers and held official conversations with Army General Raúl Castro Ruz , President of the Councils of State and Ministers, at the Palace of the Revolution .
On the last day, the president gave a speech at the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater in Havana and participated in the baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays of the United States Major Leagues and the Cuban national team at the Latin American Stadium .
Assassination threats
Since his arrival at the White House, death threats to Obama have increased and the Secret Services, in charge of protecting high-ranking US officials, assure that they receive more than 30 reports of threats daily. Statements by armed individuals and messages posted on the Internet are some of the elements considered by the authorities as attempts to assassinate Obama.
Following this line, a group was created on Facebook that asks to “pray” for the death of President Barack Obama. The group has more than a million members and includes an album of anti-Obama images uploaded by the group’s members, showing the president with communist symbols, juxtaposed with insulting and mocking captions, and a cartoon associating Obama with Hitler . It’s called: “Dear Sir, this year you took MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZE . You also took my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett . You took my favorite singer, Michael Jackson . I just wanted you to know that MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN. “
Re-election campaign
Main article: Presidential elections of 2012 in the United States .
Obama announced on 4 of April of 2011 his intention to stand for re – election in the elections of the 2012 . [52] the news was released through social media, text messages and emails.
In that same city the police repressed on May 2 a demonstration against the mass deportations of immigrants. One of the activists at the demonstration warned:
The city you have chosen for your reelection campaign cannot host a candidate who has deported more people and separated more families than any other president in American history.
Saturday 4 of maypole of 2012 , Obama officially launched his reelection campaign with two rallies in Ohio and Virginia . Obama based his re – election speech on the successes of his first term: access to loans for college students, health care reform and helping war veterans
Re-election
After a very close election, Obama defended his office on 7 of November of 2012 , in the presidential elections in the United States and seguió for four more years in the White House , to the get 332 electoral votes against 206 of Romney.
The triumph of the president was projected when he won the states of Alabama , Arizona , Arkansas , South Carolina , South Dakota , North Dakota , Georgia , Idaho , Indiana , Kansas , Kentucky , Louisiana , Mississippi , Montana , Nebraska , Ohio , Oklahoma , Tennessee , Texas , Utah , West Virginia ,Wisconsin and Wyoming , in addition to having also achieved victory by popular vote.