The Way Forward

While Obama and Castro sat at the same table this Saturday, marking the first time in more than 50 years that leaders from the U.S. and Cuba shared their thoughts publicly, the public in the U.S. had no idea what was going on.

The main news channels in the American union continued broadcasting their usual programming without any breaking news interruption about the development which undoubtedly marked a new era between Washington and Havana, and all of Latin America with it. They were minutes in which Castro told Obama that he considered him to be an honest man and the U.S. leader told Cuba that he was ready to begin a new chapter. It was surely a historic moment, not only for the summit but for the history of our continent as well. Its omission denotes a lack of interest on the part of the U.S. public in relations with Latin America.

The reality of the situation in regard to ties between Washington and the countries south of the Rio Grande lies in this detail. In the land of Uncle Sam, the economic situation, employment, immigration reform and relations with Iran are much more important than what Maduro, Correa, Castro or any of their friends say about the supposed enemy from the North. In fact, it is very unlikely that the American press keeps records of the region leaders’ insults about or diatribes against the United States. For American public opinion, it’s as if they didn’t exist. That is precisely the major problem with U.S.–Latin American relations.

As long as the general American public shows no interest in our region, there won’t be any on the part of the politicians either. In a setting of a two-party system and candidates with such similar postures, discussions are based on details and Latin America isn’t one of them. If there is no general focus, then there will be no relevance to politics or the press either. It’s evident that there is still a long way to go for our region to be important to the United States. Meanwhile, for Obama to pay attention to our countries is not only convenient but extraordinary for a U.S. leader as well.