Americas Quarterly - Spring 2009

DIPLOMACY
The U.S. Knocks
On Open Doors
POLICY UPDATE

JOeL e. StArr

Ah _i orizon for U. S. relations n the Hemisphere. Fresh new dawn may be on the

from meeting his hemispheric counterparts at the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to use the political goodwill he has generated to revive existing partnerships or create new multilateral relationships. More dynamic and harmonious relationships would not only open areas for collaboration and provide the conditions for greater regional prosperity and growth, but also serve to blunt the worrying trend of cash-for-influence politics.

United States efforts to engage in the Hemisphere continue to gain ground. In fact, the previous U.S. administration, while sometimes accused of neglecting the region, actually doubled foreign assistance to Latin America to $1.85 billion in 2009. Nine free-trade agreements (F TAs) were negotiated in the region and, of those, seven passed, and two—Colombia and Panama— are pending. The U.S. also forgave $19 billion in foreign debt to Latin America and the Caribbean’s poorest countries, and Peace Corps funding for the region increased by 30 percent. Poverty rates, which had been inching up in 2002, dramatically declined almost 10 percentage points to 35. 1 percent of the population by 2007.

But there’s more work to be done. This is what I found during two congressional delegation

trips in 2008, where we met with corrupt governments in the region.
the presidents of Peru, Ecuador, In Argentina, President Cristina
Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, and Fernández de Kirchner continues
Bolivia. What struck me was how to battle inflation and interna-
our conversations differed from tional creditors, with public and
their public messages—both about private debt held against Argen-
Venezuela and the United States. tina totaling $26.5 billion.
Paraguayan President Fernando The new U.S. administration
Lugo shared with us a message should move forward to
for the new U.S. president: “Tell immediately assist these leaders in
Obama that the President of Para- accomplishing domestic priorities.
guay dreams of a different Latin The President will be knocking
America. Tell him we should have on an open door: along with Lugo,
a relationship we dream to have.” the presidents and their staffs
In Ecuador, when the expressed great enthusiasm for
conversation turned to Venezuela, President Obama.
President Rafael Correa referred Perhaps Obama can exploit this
to President Hugo Chávez as goodwill by bringing sympathetic
regional leaders together in a
special summit of democracies.
Call it the Bolivarian Democratic
Summit to attract the Venezuelan
leader, with a promise that the
U.S. president will be the keynote
speaker. By doing this, and by
making more trips to the region
and inviting more leaders to the
White House, Washington will
go a long way toward ending the
climate of suspicion and antipathy
that has dominated, fairly or
unfairly, much of the past decade.
It will be even better if the new
administration can build on the
economic and social capital that
developed in the last few years
by promoting the passage of the
pending Colombia and Panama
FTAs. This will indeed be la
solución alternativa—a solution
based on hope and not on anti-
democratic ideologies.

The United States forgave
$19 billion in foreign
debt to Latin America’s
poorest countries.

his “friend,” but noted that “Ecuadorian policy is done by Ecuadorians.” In Chile, President Michelle Bachelet recalled to us that “Latin America has proved our democratic values and [it] must be a platform to build upon for all countries in the region.”

Many of these presidents have their share of internal problems. Peruvian President Alan García battles growing inflation and has had to deal with the reemergence of the Shining Path. Correa continues to struggle in an increasingly fractured and polarized political system. Bachelet, in the wake of massive demonstrations, has had to reshuffle her cabinet twice since taking office in 2006. Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, presides over one of the poorest and most

Joel E. Starr was the deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs from 2007 to 2009, and is a major in the United States Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps.