While Washington Sleeps …

In Latin America anything and everything is happening. The dynamism in economics, business, politics, society, international relations and even criminality, is obvious. In contrast, U.S. policy toward Latin America is lethargic, unimaginative and surprisingly irrelevant.

But before discussing the sleepy U.S. policy, let’s review the changes that are going on in Latin America. Right after Asia, it’s the fastest growing economic region in the world and one of the economies that best weathered the recent financial storm. A new group of leaders is taking charge of their countries through democratic elections. Only a few years ago, Hugo Chavez enjoyed the admiration of the vast majority of Latin Americans who, at the same time, hated George Bush. Today it’s just the opposite: Chavez’s popularity in the region has declined and that of Barack Obama is off the charts. China and Iran were remote and unknown in the region. Today, China has huge economic influence in Latin America, and Iran has forged an unprecedented political presence there. Fidel Castro says the Cuban model no longer works and then explains that he was misunderstood. But three days later, in Havana, the dismissal of 500,000 government employees (10 percent of the country’s workforce) is announced. According to the government, layoffs are necessary because the economic situation has become unbearable. While the economies of Cuba and Venezuela collapse, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and other countries grow steadily. Millions of Latin Americans have joined the middle class.

But regardless of progress, the traditional tragedies typical of underdevelopment continue to lash the region. And there are new ones: We used to see car bombs, torture and enemies’ beheadings on the news from Iraq and Afghanistan — not from Mexico, as we see now. Latin America is one of the most criminal areas in the world, in terms of murders and the percentage of its economy related to trafficking. This is not a problem easily solved. But in this matter, Latin America has also surprised us enormously: Colombia showed that progress in the war against drug cartels and violence is possible. If Colombia could, others can.

Long story short, for better and for worse, Latin America is changing rapidly in almost all respects. But nothing is changing in the manner in which the U.S. government relates to its southern neighbors. This is not new and, for decades, experts have complained that Latin America attracts the attention of the State Department only when there are wars or natural disasters. In 2006, I published an article entitled “The Lost Continent,” where I held that Latin America was the new Atlantis for the United States, the continent that disappeared from the maps. At least from Washington bureaucrats’ maps. Leaders in the United States have been too distracted, with wars, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, global financial crisis or health care reform, to care for Latin America.

But this doesn’t keep Washington from giving speeches about plans for Latin America that are as disconnected from reality as those of Fidel Castro in Cuba. According to the Department of State, U.S. policy toward Latin America has four priorities: “promoting social and economic opportunity for everyone; securing a clean energy future; ensuring the safety and security of all of our citizens; and building effective institutions of democratic governance.” How can you disagree? But this is an agenda for an economic development agency, not a ministry of foreign affairs. These are domestic challenges for the governments of each country, not for another nation’s diplomacy, however large it is. Washington would never tell Asia that the purpose of its diplomacy is “to promote opportunities” for all Asians. Furthermore, the current foreign policy toward Latin America has another small flaw: Neither the Department of State nor the whole U.S. government has the money, knowledge and human resources to implement it effectively (See: Iraq, Afghanistan).

Talking about these illusory priorities for U.S. policy toward Latin America helps avoid having to talk about other very real issues: the useless barrier on the Mexican border, the paralysis on immigration policy and free trade agreements or the stagnation in the war against drugs. Regarding the latter, note that the only thing that is stagnant is the government, because drug dealers and their customers are still very active. Last year, the consumption of marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamines increased in the United States.

In view of this, perhaps Latin America’s policy toward the superpower could have as a priority “to help Americans to decrease their drug abuse.” No one would take it seriously, but it sounds good. Like U.S. policies toward Latin America.