Washington has Lost Its Voice in South America

The Summit of the Americas held in Cartagena, Colombia between April 14-15 has shown the full extent of Washington’s loss of leadership in Latin America. Two topics in particular have pitted Latino countries against the United States — the fight against drug trafficking and the exclusion of Cuba from the multilateral organization. According to many witnesses, discussions between the American partners were heated.

Observers were surprised that accusations against Washington did not come first and foremost from South American radical-left government leaders. And this was not due to the absence of an ill Hugo Chavez. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) countries appeared to keep a low profile while traditional Conservative allies made their voices heard loud and clear. Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president and host of the Summit called on his colleagues, in his inauguration speech, to “overcome the paradigms of the past, to build new bridges, to show creativity in order to overcome difficulties.”

He called the embargo against Cuba, “anachronistic and ineffective.” “The embargo, the indifference, the turning of a blind eye, have proved their inefficiency… It is nothing more than an anachronism holding us back in the ambiance of a Cold War which ended decades ago,” he said.

The Colombian president declared that Cuba’s absence from the next summit, to be held in Panama, was inconceivable. Santos’s exposé of the United States’ South American policy did not stop at its relations with Cuba.

The most unsettling accusations against Obama were aimed at the anti-drug-trafficking policy Washington forces onto every country, with disastrous results. Only a third of U.S.-bound drugs are intercepted with this policy and drug trafficking related violence has been raging in Central America. In Mexico alone, more than 50,000 deaths have been caused by the violence in the last five years.

“Colombia, along with many other countries of the region, believes it is necessary to initiate a thorough debate on this subject which, without prejudice or dogma, will provide an analysis of the various scenarios and potential alternatives available to address this challenge with the best possible efficacy. It must be an open discussion, without ideological bias or political bias, rigorous and based on empirical evaluation of the costs and benefits of each alternative,” said Santos.

“In spite of all our efforts … the illegal drug business is thriving, drug addiction in the vast majority of our countries is a major public health issue, and drug trafficking remains the main source of finance for violence and terrorism.”

Santos declared a few months ago that he was ready to legalize marijuana if all the countries would come to an agreement on the matter. No final common declaration was adopted due to the great discrepancies of views between Washington and the Latin American countries.

Several reasons can explain Obama’s fiasco. Mainly, the issue is his inability to step away from the Monroe Doctrine that has meant treating the South American continent like a protectorate since the 19th century. Washington does not fully understand the changes these countries have gone through in the last 20 years. The image of corrupt and unstable countries led by incompetent generals is no longer a reality.

The democratization of Latino countries has given birth to stable institutions and political powers that admit alternation in most of these countries. The June 2009 coup d’état in Honduras caused an uprising from the whole continent against this resurgence from the past. This political stability has allowed for enviable economic development, with the last big crisis hitting Argentina back in 2001. Three countries — Argentina, Brazil and Mexico — are now part of the G20.

This economic development depends on the flourishing commercial relations with Asia and particularly with China that lack the raw material necessary to feed economic growth. Brazil is busily building territorial routes of access to the Pacific through Peru and Bolivia. And so the United States is no longer the big brother who used to call the often misguided shots on the subcontinent.