IV Summit of American States. Cartagena, Colombia. 2012

Barack said to Michelle: "Honey, I'll be away for the weekend. Seems I have to sign for the purchase of this peon country south of the border. Colombia, I think. The boys there say the weather's nice, they already started partying."
And so it was that President Obama took off to Cartagena de Indias in that region the North still sees as its backyard. No doubt, not even US presidents can tell anymore where Mexico ends exactly and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean start.

The freakishly long red carpet leading to the Convention Center clearly displayed the cultural divide between the American States. While the Latin American presidents looked like people going to an important meeting, Obama sort of hopped along in his boyish, classic American manner so dear to the rest of world. The only thing missing was a piece of gum in his mouth, but surely, there it was when the camera spotted him again in the conference room.

A minor offense to good taste and manners were it not one of so many by US presidents in a long history of insults to world leaders in general and most particularly to Latin American leaders.

Nobody shall ever forget Mr. Obama interrupting a meeting in Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's office to order the bombing of Libya in 2011. Bad manners, we said jokingly, while our collective Latin American stomach turned at that gesture of total disregard toward humanity in general.