Forget Latin America Why it can't get our attention
Lozada, Carlos
CARLOS LOZADA FORGET LATIH AMERICA It's barely on Washington's radar If Latin America is not entirely going to hell these days, it seems to be suffering a prolonged stay in purgatory. Political...
...It isn't a bad objective: increased access to U.S...
...Bill Clinton was the first U.S...
...Such neglect is hardly new, nor is it a product of George W. Bush's obsession with hunting evildoers elsewhere in the world...
...involvement in the region such as the Chilean coup of 1973, or the contra war in the 1980s were all inspired by the cold war...
...policy toward the region corruption...
...But the impact of an FTAA on Brazil or Argentina will never be as important as nafta has been for Mexico, mainly from South America's sheer geographic distance...
...he lamented...
...Writing in the New York Times last December 17, Nicholas D. Kristof decried U.S...
...Enforcement of U.S...
...Similarly, President George W. Bush has looked to Latin America mainly when it is absolutely necessary or politically helpful, such as during his 2000 presidential campaign when, ironically, he used his relationship with Fox to establish his foreign-policy bona fides...
...After strutting through Washington in early September 2001, Mexican President Vicente Fox had to return home, cowboy boots and all, and explain why his friends up north were ignoring Mexico, yet again...
...The most infamous cases of U.S...
...Also, while agriculture is a key concern for Latin Americans, U.S...
...markets will help Latin American economies grow...
...Political chaos in Venezuela, financial debacle in Argentina, civil war in Colombia, and corruption seemingly everywhere are but the best-known of the region's many challenges...
...efforts to end Venezuela's crisis) will remain the norm come hell or high water...
...president who failed to visit Latin America during his first term in office since Herbert Hoover...
...After the cold war, U.S...
...domestic public opinion...
...the promotion of free trade (or the hazier "free-market democracy") became the overarching policy...
...policy toward the region moved from geopolitics to geo-economics...
...Nevertheless, the pattern of neglect persisted...
...What single strategy can deal with immigration from places as diverse as Mexico and Haiti, political chaos in Venezuela, economic debacle in Argentina, drug production in Peru and Bolivia, civil war in Colombia, or the uncertainty of an eventual post-Castro Cuba...
...foreign policy, nor will it become one anytime soon...
...laws dealing with American corporate corruption abroad has been abysmal...
...A good rapport with Washington makes great sense for the region, but too much closeness backfires in anti-U.S...
...Iraq, North Korea, Al Qaeda, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russia, China, relations with Europe, the Japanese economy., .any of these issues trumps Latin American policy on the U.S...
...Treasury could publish a similar accounting of corruption abroad...
...government's to-do list...
...foreign-policy agenda, small symbolic gestures toward Latin America (such as the Chile trade pact or recent half-hearted U.S...
...For most of the postwar period, Latin America was but a pawn in the East-West geopolitical chess game...
...The current U.S.-Latin American relationship is a curious one...
...If only Hugo Chavez were developing nuclear weapons...
...Argentine journalist Andres Op-penheimer's outstanding Blindfolded: The United States and the Business of Corruption in Latin America (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2001) chronicles the role of U.S...
...The recent trade pact between the United States and Chile the first ever between the United States and a South American nation may prove the exception rather than the rule...
...Given other issues on the U.S...
...Just recall how rapidly the Bush administration shelved the "new era" of relations with Mexico following the September 11 attacks...
...officials on the one hand but blast gringo-imposed "ne-oliberal economics" on the other without so much as the grace to blush...
...Yet when it comes to corruption in Latin America, the United States would do well to look a little closer to home...
...neglect of Latin America...
...If only Saddam Hussein ruled Brazil...
...trade negotiators are unlikely to reduce agricultural trade barriers in the context of regional negotiations, opting to hold that issue for multilateral trade talks...
...In the face of such tumultuous conditions in a neighboring region, many ask, Where is the United States...
...Kristof mentions one important sphere for possible improvement in U.S...
...Therefore, Latin politicos crave photo-ops with U.S...
...At bottom, it shouldn't be too surprising that the Bush administration has yet to develop an overall policy framework (beyond trade) toward the region...
...Carlos Lozada is the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine...
...True, Latin America is not a priority for U.S...
...Even President John F. Kennedy's 1961 Alliance for Progress was simply an attempt to ward off revolutionary politics in the region...
...Then Washington might pay attention to the fire next door...
...The State Department publishes an influential annual report on human rights abroad," he writes...
...Passage of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta) embodied this approach during the 1990s...
...indeed, the interests nafta created compelled the Clinton administration to support the IMF's multibillion-dollar bailout of the Mexican economy in 1995...
...For every corrupt Latin official pocketing a bribe, a foreign multinational is often extending it...
...For the moment, "free trade" remains the Bush administration's knee-jerk response to most matters Latin American, with nafta as a model and the creation of a regionwide Free Trade Area of the Americas (ftaa) by 2005 as the stated next goal...
...companies such as Citibank and IBM in dirty dealings throughout the region...
Vol. 130 • February 2003 • No. 3
