Readers React: John Bolton returns the U.S. to its days of meddling in Latin American governments

To the editor: If Americans are wondering why our democracy is in shambles, they would be wise to finally pay some attention to U.S. foreign policy.

As evidenced in the Nov. 1 article “White House denounces Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as a ‘troika of tyranny,’” U.S. foreign policy is aggressive in nature — one could even say it is predatory. For decades it helped to topple elected foreign governments around the world in the name of fighting the Cold War.

Americans cannot be outraged only by this administration’s domestic lunacy; they must also “resist” U.S. aggression abroad.

In two weeks, a group of concerned people from Los Angeles will be going to the border in solidarity with the caravan of Central American migrants. To us, they are refugees of U.S. military and economic policy — chickens coming home to roost.

Rachel Bruhnke, San Pedro

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To the editor: One great achievement of the Obama administration was to begin opening American doors of friendship to the millions of Cuban citizens who had been economically oppressed for more than 50 years.

Now, the national security advisor to the president, John R. Bolton, announces that our Treasury Department has “expanded the list of businesses that it believes are controlled by Cuba’s military or intelligence services and are off-limits to U.S. trade or commerce.” In other words, the doors that had been opened by President Obama will soon be shut.

According to Bolton, the United States should step back from Cuban tyranny and terror. Instead of moving forward, Trump’s administration continues to step backward in the quest to make America great again.

David N. Hartman, Santa Ana

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