Old Politics

Yesterday, we were saying that if Obama — who was given an undoubted boost by the votes of Hispanic minorities in both of his election campaigns — wishes to leave a lasting impression on Latin Americans, like Kennedy with his “Alliance for Progress,” he must bring to the table an agenda capable of reorienting U.S. policies around the region to its south and its people. He must address the brutal dangers that loom large, the harsh realities and difficult challenges we face, instead of wasting time whispering sweet but meaningless nothings to us. No matter how interesting his topics of debate appear from a short-term perspective, in reality they will not help him achieve anything transcendental because of the enormity of the problems and the effect of this policy over time. Analysts from other countries agree with us when they say: “A stable Central America, though one not as united as it hopes to appear, will this week welcome a U.S. president arriving without a clear agenda and an empty checkbook.”

Time is precious for the president of the world’s most powerful country. The premiers of Central America don’t get the chance to talk to him personally every day, even if it is in a group setting and not a bilateral meeting as was the case on Obama’s first stop in Mexico. Obviously, here the two obligatory topics will be immigration — though let’s hope reform in this field doesn’t come out terribly like last time — and the violence caused by drug trafficking into the United States. This is why we are not treating his visit as an appearance by a benefactor to his needy dependents; his are obligatory contributions, from a partner who shares responsibility for such a terrible problem. Thus, we must persevere in our efforts to do away with the bloody instability generated by organized crime, which ruins everything, eating away at resources we don’t have but which we nonetheless have to use to fight a plethora of economic and social problems. What’s more, these are only the curable aspects of our great affliction.

Nevertheless, the discussion should go further than this. The fact is that, though trade and open markets — achieved first through the Caribbean Basin Agreement and later with free trade treaties — have acted as a catalyst for job creation and the occasional big business deal, this has done little to stem the flow of migrants towards the United States. While the underlying causes of the region’s fundamental backwardness remain unaddressed, and while they are exacerbated by the violence that is now bleeding it dry, people are going to have to flee in search of work and better opportunities that are not to be found domestically. The region is still on the life-support of old U.S. policies, drawn up in the 1980s when the conflicts and problems faced were of a different ilk. For the U.S., it would be well worth analyzing the results of its relationship with its neighbors to the south up to now with the intention of straightening it out, modifying its parameters if need be, improving it and supplementing it, in accordance with present-day realities. This would be an agenda worthy of a summit of this nature, if, as we said at the outset, Obama wants to leave a legacy in the region.