Thank you RT for posting your interview with President Daniel Ortega. I think that there are many ways Russia can help. One of the ways Russia can help is to support furthering and the consolidation of the integration of the Latin American states. The recent rapprochement between Venezuela and Columbia is a clear example of how rapid response from the leaders of Latin America can defuse potential tensions within Latin America before these conflicts turn into armed conflicts. This is of course bad news for the empire of chaos that it can on longer set the agenda for Latin America and that it can no longer engineer bloody coups and create death and destruction for the peoples of the Americas. Another way Russia can help is for ordinary Russians and businesses engage with Latin America through such measures as appropriate technological transfer, offer free scholarship to students in areas that are essential to development such as medicine, engineering etc. Yes, the world is changing and the empire of chaos will wake up one day to find out it has fewer and fewer friends. As for President Obama, he is going to be gone in two year’s time but the next guy will be probably from the tea party born again corporate fundamentalist type, so Latin America needs to prepare beyond Obama.

The strongest economic power in the EU is Germany. Do other members resent it,or fear it? No. It does not threaten the independence of its neighbors. Does not promote military takeovers. And it hasn't invaded its neighbors since the end of the Second World war(The USA has invaded Panama ,Grenada and other states during this same time period). It was only a matter of time before the elites in the USA began to consider the benefits of a South American political/economic union under the leadership of the USA. But the president of Nicaragua is quite correct they employ the same old means for this new project. And in doing so doom it. The USA may if it continues in the same old way unite South America against it in some new and interesting ways. Inertia in American foreign policy is the enemy of its elites. But as Iraq,Afghanistan and South America prove they find it impossible to overcome in practice. The domestic politics at the Empire's heart have turned much of President Obama's foreign policy to run along the same old tracks. But that is how empires end. They prove incapable of cutting their cloth according to their (relatively) diminishing means.

The world isn't changing, and i wouldn't expect a fair opinion by Daniel Ortega.

Why you did not asked him about his ideology. He is an inveterate communist. He has converted his nation, the biggest and the most fertile in Central America, into a basket case. His recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is to curry favor from Russia. All this talk about Latin America is the usual trite from the radical left that hasn’t abandoned the same ideals, they only have changed the methods, i.e., usurp the democratic institutions and convert tem in instruments to perpetuate themselves in power, he is currently changing the constitution to reelect himself. What really counts is the right of the citizens of a country to relieve themselves of those public officials, including president, that are derelict in their duties. Countries is this region have had 190 years of independence from colonial power, we don’t need an obsolete theory, tried and discarded in Russia, to take us back into subjugation.

Juan Pueblo you are leaving out certain counterfactual points: first, in the modern, post Soviet Russia, the memories of the Soviet achievements have not been completely rejected. Also Russia has rejected the neo-liberalist paradigm masquerading as spreading democracy for the predatory capitalist destructive model it is. Second, Russia is in a good position to use old Soviet ties not only in Latin America but in Africa as well to offer a real North South technological transfer and business model that is mutually beneficial and not imperialistic. The U.S on the other hands has cultivated primarily resentment in Latin America and Africa. It is well and good for insulting Mr. Ortega with stigmata of communism but what has the U.S offered to Latin America: endless coups, death squads, targeted assassinations and hyper militarism. Of course, Mr. Ortega wants to win the respect of Russia but I think his has gambled well when he recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia. .

PR101, I don’t think calling him a communist is an insult, for those who are is a badge of honor, and that is the problem, ideology becomes an impediment to good judgment. The events in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are proof that what counts is deep sense of nationhood, of taking care of your own, of belonging to a cultural unit. They do not need but their true friend to carry on, least of all someone on the other side of the planet trying to make points. Nobody can change the past but we can learn from it. What is the point is repeating clichés. Look Russia has not rejected democracy and capitalism, in fact is building on it based on nationalism. This is precisely the point, what is needed in our region is nationalism, real Pancho Villa’s who defend their country interest, not bankrupt ideologies to make free people into subjects. Each country has to look for its well-being; they do not need communist ideologues, stuck in their past, speaking for them as if we are one people, one region. The sooner we recognize that self-interest is the motor that moves and drives the world the better off we will be, regardless who wants to do business. There is not such a thing as a free lunch.