Felipe Bosch
While the
U.S. has been
occupied
elsewhere
during the last
eight years,
Chávez has
exploited his
new oil wealth
to win conver:ts.
their discourse and exercise of
power corrupts the essence of
democracy while leaving the
rhetoric—even in some cases
supporting terrorist groups.
Our real problems, far from
disappearing, have increased
exponentially.
Institutional weakness, combined with the concentration
of power, the crisis of political
parties and militarism acting
under the guise of democracy
need to be confronted daily
across the region. But so far
these problems are largely discussed among political and
economic analysts. They are
not discussed at presidential
summits nor are they a part of
parliamentary agendas.
Those issues threaten to
erode all our freedoms if
they are not addressed. What
should be particularly worrying is the erosion of freedom
of expression in many parts of
the hemisphere. In some cases,
newspapers and broadcast outlets with opposition points
of view have been closed
down. In other cases, governments, with their disproportionate resources, are creating
communications monopolies
by purchasing media outlets
themselves. At the same time,
new information technology
is tightly controlled, making it
impossible to develop meaningful participation by civil
society.
Drug trafficking, contraband
and organized crime have
brought devastation to Central
America in particular, while
growing inflation continues to
impoverish the traditionally
poor sectors of society. That
has slowed down consumption and economic activity, for
example, in Guatemala. And
fears over security and inflation have created a downward
spiral where decreasing international confidence has led to
a decrease in investments.
Until now, U.S. foreign
policy has been focused far
away from Latin America. The
war in Iraq has been the priority for President George W.
Bush’s administration.
This must change. The lack
of a coherent U. S. foreign
policy has accentuated the
region’s polarization, thus reviving some of the worst characteristics of the Cold War. As
Barack Obama stated, the cost
of one week of war in Iraq for
the United States equals the
amount of investment of this
country in economic assistance to all Latin America in
one year.
While I am skeptical that
any new president can reverse
these trends alone, it is vital
for you to address the growing influence of Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez. President Chávez’ relations with
the Colombian FARC and even
with the Basque ETA are well
known. However, what is even
more serious is the expansion
of his influence. While the
U. S. has been occupied elsewhere during the last eight
years, Chávez has exploited
his new oil wealth to win converts across Latin America. He
has purchased “good neighbors” by selling Venezuelan
oil on long-term credit and
with interest rates no higher
than 1 percent. The new president will need to confront this
by carrying out his pledge to
deepen economic cooperation
with Latin America.
The new U. S. leadership
will also have to face other
effects of Washington’s
neglect of the national
security challenges around
the region. In Central America,
for example, drug trafficking
and violence have contributed
to the climate of economic
uncertainty, which in turn
has triggered a huge flow
of migrants, many of them
undocumented, to the U.S.
The Mérida Initiative
represents a good start and
should be continued by the
new administration. But it
is not sufficient to address
our problems. We should be
accomplishing a more global
plan. Such a plan needs to
incorporate concepts based
on “the rule of law,” that
would include strengthening
the judiciary, improving the
enforcement of laws and
addressing corruption. Only by
strengthening the rule of law
can we make our region safer.
U. S. policy must also incorporate efforts to improve
competitiveness in our hemisphere. We need to be able to
work together to attract more
foreign investment, creating
more and better paid jobs.
On all these issues, what our
region needs is forceful leadership from the U.S., which includes a broad review of all the
strategic and economic agreements affecting the hemisphere, to reinvigorate the
struggle against drugs and
poverty. This should include
increasing contributions to
anti-drug-trafficking operations by other governments in
the hemisphere, developing
new strategies to tackle drug
consumption in the U.S. itself,
expanding programs to attract
investment and providing a
stable, predictable environment for business.
Our region needs stability.
We need to know and understand a common vision. We
need to have strong laws and
strong institutions that transcend governments. And to
achieve that we need to have a
leader committed to the Latin
American reality. We need a
leader who has the right values and principles. Someone
who will burnish the reputation of a country that has
given so much to Latin America. Together we can.develop a new American dream for the ntire hemisphere.
