Obama should make a clean break with the past on Latin America
By
Mark Weisbrot Read Spanish Version
From
Truthout.org
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 U.S.-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 U.S. ambassador in September because of Washington’s
support for opposition groups there. The U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
Mark
Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research, in Washington, DC. (www.cepr.net).
