One of the biggest gripes I’ve had is the US abandoning Latin America. Mexico is in chaos, Progressive 3rd World Liberation regimes have seized power in several nations and now one of our few allies might be going its own way. The regime of Barack Hussein Obama went out of its way to reach out to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela while giving Colombia a cold shoulder. The regime has pressured Israel to not sell offensive weapons to Colombia, thus preventing them from one day punting Chavez and his puppet Ecuadorean President Correa in their place. When the Democrats had Congress, they refused to pass the Colombia Free Trade agreement.

Colombia is under a Rightwing government whose origins was the AUC paramilitary organization of the 90’s and early 2000’s. The Right in other places are different than here in America. They will place their national interest first and not of others. As such Colombia is now talking with China to build a railroad from the Pacific to the Cartegena on the Caribbean Coast. Clearly China is now seeking to move in an area that we should be involved with.

A link between Cartagena in the Caribbean to an unspecified site on the country’s Pacific coast would facilitate Chinese imports

It is a dream that bewitched Spain, ruined Scotland, stumped France and empowered the US: a path from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.

The ambition unleashed ruinous follies in Panama’s jungles until the US finally finished a canal in 1914, an engineering feat that transformed global trade.

Now, almost a century later, China is envisaging a new link between the seas: a rail link through Colombia – a potential rival to the canal that would crown China’s economic push into Latin America.

[…]

Could Colombia’s railway compete? President Santos seemed to have little doubt, stressing the “incredible” number of Chinese delegations pitching proposals. The railway would require a production and assembly hub in a new city south of Cartagena, he said. “I don’t want to create exaggerated expectations, but it makes a lot of sense. Asia is the new motor of the world economy.”

With Chinese financing, the project would be a viable and attractive way for Bogota to ease transport bottlenecks in its mining industry, said Heather Berkman, a Eurasia Group analyst. “Colombia is no position to refuse offers of investment in its infrastructure. They need financing from outside sources and this makes sense for them.” Bogota also hopes the plan will focus Washington’s mind on ratifying a stalled free trade accord. “The Colombians have made it clear if there’s no movement on the FTA this year they will court other parties. So there is pressure on the US.”

Read the rest: China plans Colombian rail link to challenge Panama canal

Why are we letting a nation that would be a great ally start looking for others. We spend billions helping the Islamic world, appeasing them, giving them respect and that hate us anyway. Western nations like Colombia we treat like dirt and don’t respect them. If the day comes that Colombia gets closer to China or Russia, we will have only ourselves to blame. Monroe, Old Hickory and Teddy Roosevelt are spinning in their graves at the fact, we have abandoned our own hemisphere.

America’s Mideast obsession is costing us our backyard.