The Uneasy Americas

Peter Hakim

From Foreign Affairs, March/April 2001

Article preview: first 500 of 5,239 words total.

Summary:  Hemispheric relations seem at an all-time high, as democracy and prosperity blossom throughout Latin America. But President Bush still faces potential problems south of the border, from mission creep in Colombia to chaos in Peru, from Chávez in Venezuela to Castro in Cuba. And then there is Mexico, where the first-ever democratically elected president is eager to engage Washington -- on his own terms. Only one thing is certain: Latin America must not be ignored.

Peter Hakim is President of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy forum on western hemisphere affairs.

KEEPING IT TOGETHER

This April, President George W. Bush will travel to Quebec City for a summit meeting of the western hemisphere's heads of state. Thirty-three other leaders will attend the conference, the third such gathering since 1994, and each will come eager to hear the new U.S. president's plans for dealing with the region. The summit will be an ideal place for Bush to try out his ideas before an attentive foreign audience. But if he really wants to improve hemispheric ties, Bush must come prepared to do some serious listening, to get to know his Latin American colleagues, and to hear firsthand their priorities and concerns.

Should he make such an effort, Bush will learn that the United States' relations with Latin America are fundamentally sound. Most American governments are happy to cooperate with Washington, and they expect it to take the initiative on many crucial matters.

Probing a bit more deeply, however, Bush and his advisers will discover a number of serious problems under the deceptively smooth surface. Hemispheric affairs are far more troubled today than they were only a few years ago. Many of Latin America's leaders face serious political and economic troubles at home, and many are disappointed with current U.S. policies -- particularly with Washington's expanding intervention in Colombia and its lagging efforts to pursue economic cooperation and hemispheric free trade.

Bush should heed the warnings. If Latin America loses confidence in Washington -- which has seemed indifferent at some points and headstrong and inflexible at others -- the opportunities for American leadership in the hemisphere will diminish, along with hopes for an effective U.S.-Latin American partnership.

COOPERATION AND CONVERGENCE

For the last 12 years -- roughly since the start of the first Bush administration and the end of the Cold War -- relations between the United States and Latin America have been more cordial and cooperative than at any other time in memory. With almost every Latin American nation scrambling for U.S. investment and trade preferences, the once familiar cry of "Yankee go home" is no longer heard anywhere in the hemisphere, and "gringo" has ceased to be a term of opprobrium. Even Brazil, which has frequently clashed with the United States over specific issues and initiatives, now boasts that its relationship with Washington has never been better.

Many factors contributed to this improvement in the texture and tone of U.S.-Latin American links. The dramatic turn toward democratic politics and market economics in Central and South America was a powerful element; in 12 years, nearly every nation in the region came to share the same basic political and economic ideals. Another factor was the passing of the Cold War. With it, U.S. policy toward Latin America became more relaxed, and security concerns no longer trumped everything else.

A number of constructive U.S. policy initiatives also contributed to the growing goodwill. Within weeks of taking office in 1989, the first President Bush put forth the kind of debt relief plan that Latin America ...

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