Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

POEM: O.A.S., Roque Dalton, circa 1970
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
28 Oct 2026
🖨️ Print Article
Dalton

“The President of the United States is more/ the President of my country/ than the President of my country.”

In his collection Taberna y otros lugares (Taverns and other Places), winner of the Casa de las Americas prize in 1969, the Salvadoran poet and revolutionary Roque Dalton has a short poem titled “O.E.A.” Translated into English as “O.A.S.,” for the Organization of American States, Dalton’s poem offers a biting, satirical take on Caribbean and Latin American “leadership,” representing it as a merry-go-round of stooges and strongmen (and women) who are all, in the last analysis, servants of the imperial interests of the United States. 

Dalton was tragically assassinated in 1975 by members of his own guerrilla organization, the leftist People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP). Even so, a half century after his death, based on “O.A.S,” one can easily imagine what he would make of “The President of [his] country at the moment,” the sadistic zionist crypto-bro Nayib Bukele. One can assume that for Dalton, “the President of the United States is more the President of [El Salvador] than” Bukele himself.
We reprint Roque Dalton’s “O.A.S.” below.

O.A.S.

Roque Dalton

The President of my country at the moment
is called Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández.
But General Somoza, President of Nicaragua,
is also President of my country.
And Gen. Stroessner, President of Paraguay,
is also a little bit President of my country, though
less
Then the President of Honduras, General Lopez Arrelano,
and more than the President of Haiti,
Monsieur Duvalier.
And the President of the United States is more
the President of my country
than the President of my country.
The one who, as I've said, is called
at the moment Col. Fidel Sánchez Hernández

Roque Dalton, “O.A.S.,” published as “O.E.S.” in Taberna y otros lugares (Havana: Primera Casa de las Américas, 1969).

 

El Salvador
United States
Caribbean
Latin America

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Orinoco Tribune
Why Several Latin American Countries Abstained at UN Vote on US Blockade Against Cuba
04 November 2026
The collapse in support for the UN resolution against the U.S.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Rubio, France’s Student Uprising, and the Politics of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe
28 October 2026
Marco Rubio's speeches invoking a shared Western civilization are part of the ideological consolidation of fascism, mobilizing white racial sol
Nayib Bukele's face superimposed over human skulls.
Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
Killing Haiti: Bukele and Prince join the US and the UN on Mission to Murder
28 October 2026
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, joins Erik Prince, the US, and the UN to kill more Haitians.
Geraldina Colotti
Lula wins in Brazil, but the far right won’t back down
28 October 2026
Lula's narrow runoff victory over Flávio Bolsonaro preserved Brazil as one of the last bulwarks against the far right in Latin America, a victo
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Calypso as Comment, Gordon Rohlehr, 1979
21 October 2026
“So the calypso ceases to be entertainment on a trivial level and becomes a vehicle whereby the society is going back and searching f
Belen Fernandez
Israel’s Lebanese Land Grab
21 October 2026
Under the guise of a farcical “pilot zone” project to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, Israel is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy whi
Joshua Reaves Charmelus
At the "Foro Internacional Por La Paz," delegates from around the world demand an end to US Interference in Latin America
21 October 2026
Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, Peru, and Costa Rica have all elected right-wing presidents in the past year, and most are open T
Issa G Shivji
Positioning Pan-Africanism In The Geopolitical Turmoil
21 October 2026
As we are experiencing a world order in disorder, with war and conflagrations and a shifting balance of power, Issa Shivji calls for a Sovereig
Black Alliance For Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Renewal of Neocolonial Gang Suppression Force UN Mandate in Haiti
07 October 2026
The UN's renewal of the Gang Suppression Force mandate is part of a wider hemispheric project to reassert military control across the Americas.
Berthony Dupont
How the OAS Works for Imperialism in Haiti
07 October 2026
The armed groups in Haiti are not a spontaneous wave of banditry, but a scheme orchestrated by imperialist powers in concert with a reactionary

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 20, 2026
    20 Mar 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran and crises in the Horn of Africa. Sudan is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe created by United Arab Emirates proxy…
  • Iran
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Iran Resists the U.S./Israeli Attack
    20 Mar 2026
    Bahman Azad, president of the US Peace Council, joins us to discuss the US/Israeli war of aggression against Iran. The US has committed war crimes by assassinating Iranian leaders, and bombing…
  • Horn of Africa
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Iran, UAE, Sudan, and Crises in the Horn of Africa
    20 Mar 2026
    Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of Pan-African Newswire, discusses events in the Horn of Africa. The U.S. war against Iran is impacting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose Rapid Support Force proxies are…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Cuba, Venezuela and Regime Change
    18 Mar 2026
    Regime change is possible but not inevitable. Forces claiming to be leftist and claiming to be revolutionary must actually live up to the true meaning of those words.
  • Michael Manley
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Cuba is Fundamental to Us, Michael Manley, 1977
    18 Mar 2026
    “If you can do that to Cuba because somebody doesn't like the Cuban revolution, then how do I know that you don't do that to me tomorrow?” 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us