POLITICS-US:
New Approach Awaited on
Latin America, Cuba
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON (IPS) -
More than 150 years
after the United States
promulgated the Monroe
Doctrine, Washington
should recognise that
its dominance over the
Americas has ended and
that it must "engage
Latin America on its own
terms", according to a
new report released here
Wednesday by the Council
on Foreign Relations (CFR),
one of the nation's most
influential think tanks.
Among other steps, the
76-page report calls for
repealing the economic
and travel sanctions
Washington has imposed
against Cuba over the
past 15 years and engage
Havana on a range of
issues of mutual concern
and deal with a view to
ending its 46-year-old
embargo of the island.
The report, "U.S.-Latin
America Relations: A New
Direction for a New
Reality", also called
for Washington to deal
with its problems with
the government of
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez in a mainly
multilateral context
without closing off
bilateral channels.
"We should not try to
isolate Hugo Chavez,"
said Charlene
Barshefsky, the U.S.
Trade Representative
under President Bill
Clinton, who co-chaired
the task force that
produced the report.
"That will only
strengthen him."
At the same time, the
report calls for
"deepening strategic
relationships with
Brazil and Mexico" as
the region's two most
important leaders.
Washington must also
assume that Latin
American countries know
what is best for
themselves. In light of
their rapidly growing
ties with
extra-hemispheric
powers, notably the
European and Union (EU)
and China, they will not
automatically accept
Washington's direction
or advice.
"U.S. policy can no
longer be based on the
assumption that the
United States is the
most important outside
actor in Latin America,"
according to the report.
"If there was an era of
U.S. hegemony in Latin
America, it is over.
Washington's basic
policy framework,
however, has not changed
sufficiently to reflect
the new reality," it
added.
The CFR report, the work
of a task force
co-chaired by Barshefsky
and former head of the
U.S. Southern Command (Southcom)
Gen. James T. Hill, is
designed primarily to
influence the Latin
America policy framework
of the next U.S.
administration.
And to the extent Latin
America-related issues,
such as trade and
immigration, become an
issue in the ongoing
election campaign, the
report is also aimed at
influencing the terms of
that debate. To ensure
its appeal to candidates
of both major parties,
the CFR task force
included a total of 19
members, many of them
former high-ranking
officials who served in
both Democratic and
Republican
administrations.
Just as notions of U.S.
hegemony over the
hemisphere have become
outdated, Washington's
post-Cold War focus on
trade, democracy and
drugs in the region has
become an increasingly
inadequate foundation on
which to build relations
with Latin America,
according to report,
which accused the George
W. Bush administration
of having "ignored Latin
America's needs" after
the 9/11 attacks on New
York and the Pentagon.
But even before 9/11,
U.S. policy had been
operating on a kind of
automatic pilot
vis-à-vis its southern
neighbours, according to
Hill. "We've all taken a
laissez-faire attitude
toward Latin America. We
viewed (ourselves) as
the hegemonic power and
that what we say should
go. (But) the U.S. is
not the touchstone of
most Latin American
countries that it has
been...Over time, (our)
influence eroded."
While the three main
concerns of U.S. policy
toward the region remain
relevant, the task force
recommends reframing
them around four key
areas -- poverty and
inequality, public
security, migration, and
energy security -- all
of which, it says, not
only "bear directly on
U.S. interests", but are
also "of immediate
concern to Latin
America's governments
and citizens".
Indeed, a key message of
the report is that the
integration between the
U.S. and Latin America
has reached such a point
that "All of the big
issues that are apparent
in Latin America are
U.S. domestic policy
issues at the end of the
day," Barshefsky told
IPS. "The reality is, we
are integrated. The
question is how to
ensure that that
integration is positive,
and the hemisphere is
lifted."
On reducing poverty and
inequality, the report
recommends that the next
administration convene a
public-private summit to
review "best practices"
in the region and
demonstrate its
commitment to work with
Latin America
governments and other
stakeholders to address
the problems.
It also called for
increasing aid designed
explicitly for poverty
alleviation, by fully
funding the Millennium
Challenge Account, a
four-year-old fund that
rewards governments that
undertake major economic
and governance-related
reforms with hundreds of
millions of dollars in
new aid; expanding
micro-enterprise; and
directing more anti-drug
assistance, which has
been heavily militarised,
to alternative crop
production and rural
development.
The report also stressed
that anti-poverty
programmes should
"reflect the priorities
of Latin American
governments". At the
same time, it urged
Congress to approve the
pending freetrade
agreements with Colombia
and Panama and extend
additional trade
preferences to Bolivia
and Ecuador "to
encourage productive
relations with these
complex countries" whose
close political ties
with Venezuela have
caused growing concern
in Washington.
On public security, the
report calls on the new
administration to expand
U.S. training for
police, prosecutors and
judges to increase their
professionalism and
strengthen the rule of
law and promote greater
intelligence cooperation
within the region on
drug trafficking and
youth gangs.
While the report does
not call for any major
changes in the way the
drug war is carried out,
it hails recent efforts
by Congress to establish
a better balance between
military and police aid
and economic and social
assistance under the
eight-year-old Plan
Colombia, and also notes
that the Plan "has not
stemmed drug flows into
the United States
(where) prices for
cocaine and heroin are
as low as or lower than
ever."
Washington, it said,
should focus more on
reducing demand for
these drugs in the U.S.
and should also do much
more to control the flow
of guns from the U.S.
into Latin America which
fuel violence in the
region.
On energy, the report
urges the U.S. to
promote greater
cooperation and
investment in the oil
and gas sector despite
the growing concern over
"resource nationalism".
In particular,
Washington should focus
on the prospects for
boosting oil and gas
production in Mexico by
providing technology for
deep-ocean drilling in
the Gulf of Mexico.
Washington could be
particularly helpful in
developing alternative
energy markets, notably
in biofuels,
particularly in removing
tariffs and other
obstacles to encourage
their use here,
according to the report.
The report stresses that
immigration reform
should be treated as top
priority by the next
administration. In
addition to improving
border security and
regularising the status
of workers already here,
such a package should
encourage circular
migration that permits
immigrants to come to
the U.S. "for a set
period of time
and...then return home
with new human and
financial capital,
creating for longer-term
economic development in
their home communities
and countries."
In addition, Washington
should cooperate more
closely with Mexican law
enforcement authorities
to interdict contraband
and human smuggling
networks and pursue
accords with other
countries to better
regulate the flows of
migrants.
|
|
|
|
|
|
