America is changing. Not only the United States, not only North America but the whole continent and particularly Latin America. It's a part of the world where I feel more at home than in any other, a continent I feel deeply rooted in. It's a part of the world that feels unjustly neglected and it's true: Who seems to care today? Who addresses this relationship in the campaign?
We have to look to another campaign to see the changes. This week, Hugo Chavez was reelected in Venezuela for a fourth mandate. He is a symbol. A symbol of the aspirations of Latin America. But also a symbol of the need of a Pan-American reconciliation. Ostracizing Cuba fifty years ago has created only a diplomatic cliff. Today is the time not to renew this mistake and to bridge this cliff. President Chavez has mentioned his will to work towards national unity that is much needed in a country full of violence, divisions and conflicts. President Obama has been for the last years more cautious and good-willed than his predecessor. But he didn't manage yet to create the sparkle of trust that is needed for decades. It's not about forgetting the past, neither about digging it up; it's about reconciling a continent for a common future as Europe had the chance to do after the Cold War.
Now is the time, because North and South America are slowly drifting apart and their relationship is becoming more distant than ever before.
There are several reasons to this continental drift.
Firstly, the U.S.'s influence is fading away because they are turning their back on South America. It's not to me to say why. Maybe it's because large Latin American immigration has changed the face of the United States, and changed the relationship to the home countries. Maybe it's because the ALENA has created the impression that North America was to become a space of its own. Maybe it's because of mistakes committed during the past decades, when the Cold War and the legacy of the "backyard" and the "Big Stick" fostered misunderstandings.
Secondly, Latin America is experiencing the time of sovereign democracy. The countries of the continent try to develop their own models, building on a strong national feeling and on the reconciliation of long divided societies, between native populations and colonial societies, between rich and poor. This remains the key question. You can't lead a country of the South the same way you do in the North. This is what it took the IMF so long to understand. Reducing poverty is not only the goal, it's the emergency of day to day politics. Now is the chance, because the history of political violence and of authoritarianism is giving way to a time of political appeasement. In Peru, the "Shining Path" has been overcome. Today, there seems to be a possibility to find peace with the FARC in Colombia, through the great efforts of the new president Juan Manuel Santos. Lula in Brazil, Correa in Ecuador, Morales in Bolivia, Cristina Kirchner in Argentina as well as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela try to reshape south-American societies. Still the challenges remain huge. The temptations are enormous. But it has become possible.
Thirdly, the Souths of the world are merging to one South or to an interconnected South. American-African relations have developed quickly in the past years, as well economically as culturally, particularly under the influence of president Lula, who visited Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique. The Latin Americans have thrown ropes across the Atlantic. They also have across the Pacific. Trade relations between China and South America have risen by a stunning 40 percent a year in the last decade. China is already the first export partner of many south-American countries. The major deals are now made with Chinese companies, because rising China is keen on oil, on copper, on rare metals to feed its industries. That's what it's about when some countries gather within a Pacific Alliance with its eyes turned towards Beijing and Shanghai.
As the French saying goes: Far from the eyes, far from the heart. The Pan-American relationship can't be based only on reason and cold distance. It needs passion, it needs a vision, it needs a presence.
It's in the interest of the United States, who will need this emerging market at their doors, with its immense mineral and energetic resources, that's sure. But I also believe it's in the interest of world stability that the long awaited restart of the Pan-American spirit takes place soon. Because there is a historical triangle between Europe, North America and Latin America that needs to be upheld as a source of global stability.
There would be a major risk if one day it came to an upfront division between rich North and poor South, if there were no channels of communication, dialogue, mediation that were kept open. Europe is not Europe anymore if it forgets the emigrants it sent to the new world during the last centuries, shaping new societies, new ideals, new hopes.
How we look at our South and how we look at the world's south has become the crucial question for the great challenges of the future, as the commitment of South American countries to climate change and biodiversity issues has shown since Cancun or since Rio+20.
Don't forsake your south.
Rick D. Axtell: The Candidates' Calculated Silence About Poverty
However, Latin America has self-mutilated itself by assuming a dependency on models derived from the North, instead of creating its own models. Latin America needs to be its own West, and stop its limiting imitation of Europe and the U.S.A. This is what the progressive governments are trying to achieve; a new culture of self-reliance and self-centeredness.
Hopefully the present schemes of integration will lead to the unification of the region, but there is still much work to do, as many Latin Americans are still trapped in the old mentality.
Why assume the South will remain poor?? Specially considering Latin America has a higher percapita income and standard of living than China...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/188-2271761-2704007?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=economic+hitman
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350043451&sr=8-1&keywords=economic+hitman
http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-History-American-Empire/dp/0452289572/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350044970&sr=8-2&keywords=economic+hitman
Really? Then why did they overthrow the democratically-elected governments and install crooks in almost every country in Latin America?
Your post smacks of the typical American who doesn't know his own history and knows even less about Latin America.
This is equally true in the world of energy.
"The major deals are now made with Chinese companies, because rising China is keen on oil, on copper, on rare metals to feed its industries. That's what it's about when some countries gather within a Pacific Alliance with its eyes turned towards Beijing and Shanghai."
This is what must change too. Countries, and the communities within them, need to be self-sufficient. They need to get away from mining the earth, just as their indigenous natives did for thousands of years. There's so much beauty and culture in Latin America, but giving in to pressure from the industrial giants, notably China, to wipe all of this away in the name of progress is a bridge to nowhere.
If nations respect each other's sovereignty and their trade is fair and mutually beneficial, what is wrong with purchasing what cannot be produced in their own countries?
Americans, at least those who are accustomed to holding power, tend to think of themselves in terms of their English heritage. Anyone different tends to be viewed with suspicion, and the natural tendency is to take an Anglo viewpoint. Take, for instance, our strong support of Britain over Argentina regarding the Malvinas islands.
Then there is the feeling of ownership, the consequence of the Monroe Doctrine. When enunciated, its intent was to allow other nations in the new world to develop unfettered by European colonialism; and particularly to drive the Spanish, Portuguese and French away. It instilled in the minds of American leaders the notion that South and Central America are "ours", and the consequence of that is that we do not need to do anything to develop better relations with them. Now history is catching up with us, and the strong leadership and strengthening economies of the regions are allowing them to repay our neglect and outright interference with reciprocation of neglect.
If the people in the Malvinas want to be British, they can move to Britain.