An Ambitious Proposal

The history of the continent, especially with the U.S., has been bumpy.

“Democracy is not only the defining feature of American histories, but the essential ingredient to Americas’ futures. … We don’t always agree on everything, but because we’re democracies, we work through our disagreements with mutual respect and dialogue,” Joe Biden said.

Apart from the fact that cynics might ask about dialogue in the case of the three dictatorial countries excluded from the summit, you can say this was an ideological approach as much as an idealized one.

The history of the continent, especially that of relations with the U.S., has been bumpy. But it is also full of good intentions and misinterpretations in which everyone has their own version of “what should be” and “how it should be,” and checks in the exercise of aid that have contributed to the distrust of the left and the right in Latin America.

The enthusiasm with which many young Americans volunteered in rural Latin American communities was sometimes met with problems of understanding, cultural clashes and the interpretation of missions.

The ninth Summit of the Americas may be one more chapter in that history of frustration, to some extent due to the very characteristics of a democratic country whose changes of government have often involved the bureaucratic slow death of proposals from political starvation.

In that sense, it is difficult to rule out the possibility that there may be a change of majority party in November’s midterm elections, or in the White House in 2024 and the arrival of a Republican Party dominated by the “hard” right.

It is true that Biden’s proposals are of enormous strategic and geopolitical interest for the U.S. and the countries in its regional environment. His failure would hurt everyone.

The U.S. proposals are, as has happened on other historical occasions, attractive. However, they can be a challenge when it comes time to implement them.

Development of medical personnel, trade, investments … the list is short, but the scope of ambitious proposals by the U.S. government for countries in Latin America is formidable.

In real terms, you can speak of an initiative with clear geopolitical motivation, aimed at countering growing economic-commercial competition — and, of course, the political influence of China, and perhaps others, in the region.

Some may wonder if it is too little, too late, or if the U.S. will be able to keep its promise, given the political polarization it is going through.

The other side of the coin is that the U.S. is approaching the governments of an equally divided, polarized and skeptical region who are reluctant to accept that a significant part of their problems is due to their own shortcomings.