MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

As US poll results dragged on, Colombia daily mocked oldest democracy asking 'who's the Banana Republic now?'

While some friendly nations congratulated Joe Biden-Kamala Harris duo over the victory, some less friendly ones reminded Washington of their differing stands

The United States is often seen as the leader of the Free World and its leaders have expressed pride about the country’s centuries-old democracy. But the delay over the announcement of this year’s presidential election has given some countries in the US’s neighborhood an opportunity to take a dig at the superpower. Publimetro, a major newspaper in Colombia, for instance, has come up with a headline mocking the US: “Who’s the Banana Republic now?”, Associated Press reported. The daily ridiculed the American election on the front page with a picture of a man in an American flag print mask.

However, Colombia was among some of the US-friendly nations like Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay that congratulated the Biden-Harris duo over their wins.

Others were less forthcoming. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration has strongly attacked in the past, laughed as the election dragged on past Tuesday, November 3. He briefly broke into the hymn of the US’s annual beauty contest on the state TV, singing: “On a night like to night, any of them could win.” The Leftist leader suspended all diplomatic ties with the US in January last year after Trump recognized, along with many other countries, opposition leader Juan Guaido as the Latin American nation’s president. Maduro continued to hold on to power despite the Trump administration imposing harsh sanctions on his regime.

Apart from Maduro, who expressed hope that ties between his country and the US would see better days under the Joe Biden presidency, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez also felt the same. He said the US has chosen a “new direction in the presidential elections” and harbored the hope of having constructive bilateral relations with Washington irrespective of the differences. Trump reversed his predecessor Barack Obama’s initiative of re-establishing diplomatic ties with Havana by canceling deals and imposing on it strong financial sanctions and new travel restrictions.

The Cuban leader, however, stopped short of congratulating Biden. He also came up with a tweet on Fidel Castro on Saturday in which he quoted the legendary leader as saying: “There are those who still dream of bringing Cuba to its knees, brandishing the criminal blockade as an instrument of United States foreign policy against our homeland.” Recently, Iran’s foreign minister went to Cuba to meet his counterpart in the island nation to reinforce the two nations’ mutual support in the face of American sanctions.

Bolivian President Luis Arce, who took over on Sunday, November 8, congratulated president-elect Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris the same day but only after posting the translation of a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who he called “Brother”, and pictures of him meeting with an Iranian delegation that came to meet the new president.

Mexican President Obrador waits and watches

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waited for the US election results. When asked over the weekend the reason for not congratulating Biden, Obrador said his government was waiting for all legal issues to be resolved. “We do not want to be reckless, we do not want to act lightly and we want to be respectful of the self-determination of the peoples and respectful of the rights of others,” a report in Vice quoted him as saying.

Obrador’s position was not appreciated by Democratic leaders like Joaquin Castro but one would feel the Mexican president has been through a similar situation in his own country in 2006. That year, he lost an election that declared Felipe Calderon by less than a percentage point and that left Obrador and his supporters so much frustrated that they spent months occupying public plazas and even had their own inauguration ceremony. They eventually conceded.

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez congratulated the Biden-Harris pair but one believed he would have done so with a heavy heart. Afterall, the outgoing Trump administration backed his government’s escorts to curb migration despite it getting embroiled in a scandal after Hernandez’s brother Tony was found guilty of drug charges in an American court last year.