Americas Quarterly

Of course, it is not just a matter of increas- ^María ^Teresaing aid. We need fairer, more transparent and ^Ronderos ^isequitable trade relations. Free trade agreements ^{editor-in-chief}of Semana .com
have proven a mixed blessing, in large part due _and _authorto the structural inequalities that have been _of _Retratosincorporated. _del _PoderLatin American citizens know that many (2002) and 5 en
attempts to fight poverty and improve health Humor (2007).
and education in their countries fail because of Photographed
clientelistic politics, corruption and weak insti- at her offices
tutions unable to properly safeguard fundamen- ⁱⁿ ^Bogotá,tal citizens´ rights. In this realm, the U.S. has ^Colombia, ^2008.developed interesting policies in Latin America.
It has helped some countries adopt adversarial
judicial systems to make them more efficient;
it has helped others in institution-building and
corruption control. In Colombia, for example,
the U.S. government and Congress have played
a key role in bringing about transparency in the
military institutions and have exerted pressure
on our own leaders to stop human rights viola-
tions by the Armed Forces.

This is healthy, but the next president must

do more to help strengthen the rule of law, and protect political institutions from organized crime and corruption. It will make a huge difference if the U.S. government becomes less tolerant of corrupt leaders and values more transparent and open information instead of continuing its traditional diplomacy and secrecy to maintain the stability of cooperative elites that support what may be seen as rather narrow U.S. interests.

U. S. presidents have taken Latin America for granted for too long.

In doing so they have overlooked the possibility that Latin American countries could become valuable partners in change. Latin American democracies are maturing, some are advancing toward more consolidated regimes, others are advancing in a more turbulent and uncertain manner.