Obama and a New Course in Latin America

I followed the Summit of the Americas while in Colombia. The picture of the handshake between U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dominated all the front pages of the region's newspapers. The friendly smiles of the two countries' leaders best captured the clear break from the past, disastrous, Bush era in the region.

In his opening remarks, President Obama uttered words very much welcomed by all present:

I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. (Applause.) There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values. So I'm here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration. (Applause)... I didn't come here to debate the past -- I came here to deal with the future. (Applause.) I believe ... that we must learn from history, but we can't be trapped by it.

I sensed Obama was successful in resetting perceptions of the U.S. in the region when I called up Francisco Galan, a former leader of the ELN guerrilla (the second largest guerilla group in Colombia) and today a firm promoter of peace and reconciliation. In the 1970s, willing to spend his life working toward an ideal of social justice, Galan left a Catholic priest seminary to join an insurgency following the teachings of Che Guevara and a theology of liberation. While in prison, where he stayed for 14 years, Galan begun to change his view of the conflict He led many peace process efforts and today has reached the conclusion that the insurgency must renounce violence as a step towards an authentic peace process in Colombia. Obama had just reaffirmed the United States will seek a new beginning with Cuba when I asked Francisco Galan what his perception of the summit and of Obama was:

I am moved by this new era of humanity. I do hope that the leadership in Cuba will understand the new reality and will join the globalization of politics and universal brotherhood. Obama can do a lot for the fraternity of our region.

These words were uttered by a former mayor guerrilla leader -- who in the past interpreted his armed struggle also as a fight against U.S. imperialism -- is one more voice welcoming the fresh air President Obama has brought to foreign policy. But handshakes and smiles are certainly not sufficient for real and substantial change.

Just cosmetics will not do it. The end of military rule and the constitutional reforms of the 1990s did not fulfill the promises of democracy in the region. Neoliberalism did not bring more prosperity. It only perpetuated and deepened inequality.

The everyday violence that marks the life of Latin American countries is a sign that underlying structural problems persist. Today there are 54 million more poor people in Latin America compared to 1980. In the last quarter of a century, criminality has doubled. Over 25 million young people are excluded from the job market and the education system. This is a time bomb.

Today, a new and bold approach is necessary. A first step is to acknowledge the failure of neoliberal policies. Without recognizing this failure it will not be possible to craft a better alternative. A second step requires redefining security not as state-centered, but as people-centered. As long as rampaging drug violence is analyzed only as a threat to national security, the fight against transnational networks of crime will not be satisfactory.

In Trinidad-Tobago, Obama's major accomplishment was the region's change in its perception of the United States. An important outcome. Let's hope this is the prelude to a courageous and substantial change in policy.

Comments

[RoloTomassi]

"Today, a new and bold approach is necessary. A first step is to acknowledge the failure of neoliberal policies. Without recognizing this failure it will not be possible to craft a better alternative. A second step requires redefining security not as state-centered, but as people-centered. As long as rampaging drug violence is analyzed only as a threat to national security, the fight against transnational networks of crime will not be satisfacto­ry."

Outstanding analysis rather than the typical market fundamenta­list-inspi­red propaganda. Thank you.

[amacd]

Where, oh where, do guys like Chavez, Morales, and Ortega 'get off' with painting the US as a militarist, 'corporate­-financial Empire' that tortures powerless people in its oil territories, and economically oppresses its own 'working class' citizens?

Oh, that's right, they 'get off' with it because they see it directly and know the truth ---- of which the American people are blinded by the 'Vichy' facade of democracy that this ruling-elite global 'corporate financial Empire' hides behind (with the help of an equally 'Vichy' corporate media) while the guileful EMPIRE hides in our kitchen of faux democracy and mis-uses the US super-power military to abuse the rest of the world!

There may be some method to Obama's madness in allowing others to inform the American people about the global corporate empire in which we really live.

My bet? That not only all the other Western Hemisphere states will deliver this message today, but that all the European and other real, sustainable, and functioning 'social democracy' (post-WWII, and post-Empire) nations of Europe and Japan will start telling America this "inconvenient truth" ---- which will make Obama's job as the reforming leader of our country more possible in bringing America from EMPIRE back to the democratic Republic that 99% of Americans thought we were and want to be again.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine