Obama Should Make a Clean Break With the Past on Latin America

Tuesday 02 December 2008

by: Mark Weisbrot  |  Center for Economic and Policy Research

Obama Should Break With Past on Latin America
Bolivian President Evo Morales talks with the press in Washington, DC. Morales has stated that he hopes to improve diplomatic relations with the US under an Obama administration. (Photo: Reuters)

    President-elect Obama's historic triumph was welcomed in Latin America by left-of-center governments who saw it as a continuation of their own electoral victories. Even before the election, President Lula da Silva of Brazil said, "Just as Brazil elected a metal worker, Bolivia elected an Indian, Venezuela elected Chavez and Paraguay a bishop, I think that it would be an extraordinary thing if, in the largest economy in the world, a black man were elected president of the United States."

    Obama has an opportunity to forge a new relationship with the region after his predecessor drove US-Latin American relations into a ditch. But it will require a major change in Washington's attitude toward our southern neighbors.

    Most importantly, as the Brookings Institution recently noted, the Obama administration will have to abandon Bush's efforts to divide the left-of-center governments into a "good left" and "bad left," rewarding the former and punishing the latter. Most recently, the Bush administration decided to punish Bolivia by suspending their trade preferences and threatening tens of thousands of jobs there - allegedly for not cooperating in the "war on drugs."

    Bolivia's President Evo Morales was in Washington this month and met with Sen. Richard Lugar. Senator Lugar is the most influential Republican on foreign policy issues and is very close to President-elect Obama - who, according to rumors here, offered him the position of secretary of state. Lugar issued a very positive press statement on the meeting with Evo: "The United States regrets any perception that it has been disrespectful, insensitive, or engaged in any improper activities that would disregard the legitimacy of the current Bolivian government or its sovereignty," he said. "We hope to renew our relationship with Bolivia, and to develop a rapport grounded on respect and transparency."

    Although Evo Morales handed this statement to the Washington Post, neither the meeting with Lugar nor Lugar's statement made it into the print edition of the Post's article on Evo's visit. This indicates that the Obama administration will have to confront not only the State Department, but also some of the major media if it wants to change relations with Latin America.

    Bolivia expelled the US ambassador in September because of Washington's support for opposition groups there. The US State Department spent $89 million in Bolivia last year. Some of it went to opposition groups; we don't know exactly how much because our government does not provide full disclosure. Washington is also supplying millions of dollars to undisclosed organizations in Venezuela, where it supported a military coup in 2002. Imagine if China or Russia were pumping $100 billion (the equivalent here) into in the United States, and some billions went to undisclosed groups. We would not allow that.

    The consensus in Washington is that we have the right to do all kinds of things in Latin American countries that we would never permit here. The new governments there do not agree. They also think they have the right to an independent foreign policy. Brazil's foreign minister went to Iran this month, where he publicly defended Iran's right to enrich uranium, and announced that expanding commercial and other ties to Iran were "a foreign policy priority" for Brazil. The State Department and US media ignored these statements because they came from Brazil, but when Venezuela does the same thing, it is considered impermissible.

    These are the kinds of double standards that the Obama administration will have to abandon if it wants a new relationship with Latin America. The left governments of Latin America have all reached out to our new president-elect with great hopes and expectations. It will now be up to our new government to break with the past, and respect the sovereignty and dignity of our neighbors to the south. That's all they are asking for.

    ---------

    This article has previously been published by McClatchy Newspapers.

    Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, DC. (www.cepr.net).

All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.





     

»



Comments

This forum is moderated by software. Please allow up to 15 minutes for your comments to go live and avoid posting the same comment multiple times.



Thank you Mr. Weisbrot for

 Wed, 12/03/2008 - 18:27 — Justina (not verified)
Thank you Mr. Weisbrot for lucid expression of what is needed to improve the relationships between the countries of Latin America and the United States. If the United States would respect the right of Latin American peoples to pursue their own chosen forms of government, there will be harmony. If the U.S. continues to attempt to control the governments and economies of Latin American, they will continue to foment anti-U.S. animosity. Your right: Bush-Cheney drove U.S. - Latin American relations into a ditch. Let us hope for more humane and sensible policies from the Obama administration.


Let's face it. The U.S.

 Wed, 12/03/2008 - 20:21 — Anonymous (not verified)
Let's face it. The U.S. needs to make major changes in its relations with South America and we the people of the U.S. have voted for major changes And while we are at changing, I am boycotting such media as The Washington Post and The New Y ork Times. Their emphasis for the most part strikes me as being strictly head-in-the-sand. Definitely stupid.


I too can easily say as

 Wed, 12/03/2008 - 21:02 — David Brookbank (not verified)
I too can easily say as Justina does in her comment that Weisbrot makes a lucid statement in the most basic and minimal terms of what would need to change in the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America. IF the U.S. would do "x,y,z"k, THEN there would the harmony. It is a true statement that Bush-Cheney drove U.S.-Latin American relations into the ditch. However, it is simply not correct to suggest that U.S./Latin American relationship have not virtually always been on the edge of being in the ditch to some greater or lesser degree. Furthermore, as to the statement by Justina that "If the U.S. continues to attempt to control the governments and economies of Latin America, they will continue to foment anti-U.S. animosity", I disagree with the formulation. More nearly correct is to say, "If the U.S. continues its anti-democratic practices towards Latin American including fomenting subversion and engaging in covert interventions and economic destabilization among a multitude of actions, there will continue to be extremely forceful, justifiable push-back by Latin American peoples and governments. It is unfortunate -- but entirely predictable -- that Obama, who would never have gotten through the debate hall doors that were blocked to Kucinich, Nader and others had he not been vetted by the U.S. ruling class establishment, is a continue in a different configuration of U.S. capitalist imperialism. The membership of domestic/international economic team and his foreign policy/national security team are beyond any doubt crystal clear evidence. It is time to start singing, "Obama, same song, 44th verse".


An Incan prophesy states

 Wed, 12/03/2008 - 22:09 — Meredy (not verified)
An Incan prophesy states that Eagle (representing the energies of the North) and Condor (of South America) will not access freedom until they reunite and take flight together. It is a reminder that the Eagle of the North cannot be free without the Condor of the South. After 500 years of exploitation, this opening offers hope for genuine change. It is time to help our lands mix in a benevolent contract and reactivate that which was sacred. My generation will not thrive unless we share our ideas, talents and wealth across all peoples, for mutual benefit throughout the Americas (and the world). I hope that Mark's analysis begins to guide our societies down the path of reuniting Eagle and Condor, so they may fly wing in wing once again.


The US as a whole, and

 Wed, 12/03/2008 - 22:39 — Sandra Rodriguez-Beauchamp (not verified)
The US as a whole, and President-elect Obama in particular, should be proud and overjoyed to know that at long last most Latin American nations have been able to elect leaders and programs that stand for the most cherished ideals and principles of the Americas, trampled North and South so many times. Someone like Evo Morales has to be every progressive’s hero, having overcome lawfully and peacefully the harshest opposition from the racist landed oligarchy committed to destroy him. Having someone like Lugo in Paraguay, like Lula in Brazil, like Chavez in Venezuela, like Correa in Ecuador, like Bachelet in Chile, like Kirchner in Argentina, means that the people of the US will never again be deceived, will never again be forced to pay for – or in any other way be part of – imperialist aggression in Latin America. They will not allow it. It certainly also means that a new era of friendly, productive cooperation is at hand in the Americas. If only Obama surrounds himself with some truly intelligent advisers. Sandra Rodríguez San Juan, Puerto Rico sarodgz@gmail.com


I think DAVID BROOKBANK, who

 Thu, 12/04/2008 - 09:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
I think DAVID BROOKBANK, who used some long drawn out bunch of buzz words to describe our governments attempts to control Latin American which Justina stated just as well in a concise and intelligent sentence, needs to do some more research. He states, "...it is simply not correct to suggest that U.S./Latin American relations have not virtually always been on the edge of being in the ditch to some greater or lesser degree." What Mr. Brookbank, and many other Americans, conveniently fails to mention is that if the relations between the US and Latin America have been near the edge of the metaphorical ditch, it is because the US has been meddling with our southern, sovereign neighbors governments since the turn of the century and continues to do so even now. And please, let Obama get into the White House and begin to govern before you start to criticize him.


The USA also should submit a

 Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:57 — David Failure (not verified)
The USA also should submit a plethora of apologies for the way it has violently manipulated Latin American nations as well as the removal of tens of trillions of dollars of collective debts imposed by the mobster institutions known as the IMF and World Bank. These two organizations,neither of which is international, but US owned, have acted as forms of economic militarism with their scams of getting countries in debt. I sincerely doubt Obama will touch this issue. He was trained at two educational institutions that were taken over by neoliberal economics: Harvard and the University of Chicago. He also remarked during his campaign that "we need to get Latin America back", when in fact we need to keep our filthy, mired hands off their economic systems and governmental processes.