James Earl Carter Jr. turns one hundred years old this Tuesday. Perhaps with that name few people realize that we are talking about Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States; that democrat with the eternal smile; For many Spaniards of that time, “the one with the peanuts.” We are facing the oldest president of the United States.
Although he has suffered from cancer and other serious ailments, more than a year ago Carter chose not to continue being treated or intervened. And so, one step away from the end, he has received his hundred years of living in his home in Plains (Georgia), his hometown.
He left a town of barely 600 inhabitants and reached the most powerful seat on the planet. Sump He held the Oval Office from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981.. It was a single term: he would lose re-election to Ronald Reagan and the fiercely conservative new times.
The current president, Joe Bidendescribes him as an “influential statesman”, but in his time Americans did not have such a high opinion of their top boss. Historians say that Carter was an unorthodox man who did not fit into the establishment from Washington. So much so that he didn’t even have solid support from his own party. In short, before and even now, it is considered that he was a better person than president.
Peanut Carter
When Jimmy Carter was president of the United States, Adolfo Suárez and the UCD governed Spain, that democratic center that was barely united. That Spain had just seen the dictator Franco die, in bed, and had begun its transition to democracy. Carter was for the Spanish that smiling boss of the world and “the one with the peanuts.” It made sense: the American president was the firstborn of a family of Irish origin that owned several peanut plantations back in his native Georgia.
Lights and shadows
Among the achievements of Jimmy Carter’s presidency are the signing of the Camp David accords, which allowed peace between Egyptians and Israelis, the Panama Canal Treaty, and the second round of the SALT Accords. But all the good was almost buried by his management of the crisis of the 63 American hostages in the Tehran embassy in 1979. Although their release was negotiated and guaranteed by the Carter administration, the hostages were not released until January 20, 1981, when Reagan had already won the elections and been sworn in as president.
He was a Democrat and his economic policy was quite far from those liberalizations to the extreme they would later go to with Reagan. His administration encountered a serious economic crisis, characterized by rising energy prices and stagflation. By the end of his administration, Carter had managed to substantially reduce unemployment and the public deficit, but it was not able to completely end the recession.
Of course, in foreign policy the differences with the Republicans were not that many. There it is the Carter Doctrinewhich the president presented in his State of the Union address on January 23, 1980. Carter announced that The US would use military forceif necessary, to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf.
But he negotiated a lot and always tried for peace. The Camp David agreements (1979) made it possible peace between Egypt and Israel. On March 26, 1979, both countries signed the peace treaty. Carter’s role was essential. “No matter who you ask, Americans, Egyptians, or Israelis, most agree: without Carter there would have been no peace treaty,” says analyst and negotiator Aaron David Miller in his book The Much Too Promised Land.
as president placed human rights among its prioritieswhich marked a break with his predecessors. Carter stopped supporting the Somoza regime in Nicaragua, historically backed by the US, and gave his help to the new Sandinista National Liberation Front government that took power after Somoza’s overthrow. He was also known for his criticism of the dictators Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay and Augusto Pinochet of Chile, although both attended the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty.
Carter also protested against the apartheid in South Africa and continued the policy of imposing sanctions on Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) until the democratic election of Robert Mugabe. In his duty, ignore the rights of women in Saudi Arabia or ignore the request of Archbishop Óscar Romero in El Salvador so that he would not send military aid to that country (Romero was later assassinated).
Tireless philanthropic and diplomatic work
His prestige grew after leaving the White House. For years, Carter has received praise for his philanthropic work in favor of human rights and free electionsand his criticism of authoritarian regimes. He has done it through Carter Centerfounded by him and his wife Rosalynn. with the foundation Habitat for Humanity They have built houses for low-income families for decades.
“We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. Not only can we make these changes, we must make them”
The former president was in 2002 the first high-ranking American political personality to visit Cuba and meet with Fidel Castro after Washington imposed an economic embargo on the island in the 1960s. Another 13 years passed until a US president, also a Democrat Barack Obamatraveled to Havana on an official visit as part of the “normalization” of diplomatic relations between both countries.
In these years, numerous countries have requested Carter’s intervention on the occasion of the holding of general elections. Among them are Panama, Nicaragua, Zambia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Mexico and Peru.
In 2002, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the “tireless effort (deployed) in the search for solutions to international conflicts.” Accepting the award in Oslo, Carter said: “We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. Not only can we make these changes, we must make them.” Next to him was Rosalynn, with whom he was married for 77 years and had four children. She passed away in November 2023.
One of his grandsons, Jason Carter, recently claimed that his grandfather is “mentally and emotionally involved in what’s happening around him and in the news.” In fact, his people say, the former president He is excited to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 elections. Carter’s vote is intended to contribute to the first time that a woman, also a descendant of African Americans and Indian immigrants, reaches the White House.
