Obama’s low-key approach to Latin America

Posted on Sunday, 06.08.14

Obama's low-key approach to Latin America
BY GREGORY WEEKS
GBWEEKS@UNCC.EDU

It is currently fashionable to criticize President Obama for paying
insufficient attention to Latin America. He offers no grand strategy, no
lines in the sand, no soaring speeches, few high-profile visits and no
"big stick." What the critics miss is that his low-key approach has been
highly effective.

When the United States pays close attention to Latin America, the
results are often negative. Just in the past half century:

• President John F. Kennedy's close attention to Cuba helped embarrass
the United States and entrench the Castro regime.

• President Richard Nixon believed Chile to be critical, and his
attention encouraged a coup and subsequent brutal military dictatorship.

• President Ronald Reagan's insistence on Central America's importance
cemented a decade of war and destruction.

• In the 1980s and 1990s, several U.S. presidents oversaw drastic market
reforms that increased poverty and inequality, which helped lead to
populist regimes now viewed as hostile.

• Finally, President George W. Bush's focus on terrorism led him to
alienate several Latin American governments and to meet complete failure
with his vaunted Free Trade Area of the Americas.

President Obama's strategy has been different. Instead of highly public
initiatives, his administration has been working hard on the ground and
mostly off the radar. There is a lot of personal attention. Vice
President Joe Biden has frequently traveled to the region, and next
month will visit Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Treasury
Secretary Jacob Lew was recently in Brazil and Mexico. Assistant
Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson has been all over the region, most
recently at the Organization of American States summit in Paraguay.

The president has not announced large new economic initiatives but
rather has strengthened ties with Pacific Alliance countries — Chile,
Colombia, Mexico and Peru, with Costa Rica and Panama still to join —
which will deepen further.

A recent report from the Atlantic Council outlines how much the United
States has engaged economically and how much more could occur, such as
through the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Even with Brazil, where relations
have sometimes been tense, the Congressional Research Service noted in
March 2014 that "the countries continue to engage on issues such as
trade, energy, security, racial equality and the environment."

He has worked to pass immigration reform, which would be beneficial to
Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean but has been stymied by
Congress. The immigrant prison industry is a troubling development, but
no one can deny the uphill battle the president has faced in getting any
substantive reform passed.

Diplomatically, the Obama administration has avoided unnecessary wars of
words with presidents suh as Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and has
supported dialogue in that country's political crisis even while feeling
intense pressure to impose new sanctions. He has similarly backed the
difficult negotiations taking place between the Colombian government and
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana.

In his recent speech at West Point, the president emphasized the need to
avoid costly and unnecessary foreign-policy errors. Unlike so many of
his predecessors, he has been largely successful in that regard. By no
means does that mean perfection, since there are plenty of decisions
that deserve both scrutiny and criticism. But overall, it deserves some
praise.

The result? Contrary to what you commonly hear, Latin Americans
currently view the United States in very favorable terms. In countries
where the administration has worked on expanding social and economic
ties, those views are especially positive.

Engagement is beneficial to the United States, and the Obama
administration has been pursuing it actively in Latin America. Just not
loudly.

Gregory Weeks is professor and chair of the Department of Political
Science & Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/08/4163091/obamas-low-key-approach-to-latin.html