So Long, U.S. and Canada

Latin American and Caribbean countries form a new alliance without the north.

More unity, but please: No U.S. and Canada. That was the word from 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations who met Friday and Saturday in Caracas to officially form the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Just a decade ago, it would have been unthinkable that Latin America would form such an alliance without the Washington-controlled Organization of American States. But that time has now come, and it emphasizes the extent to which the United States has lost influence, not only globally, but in its own backyard. The formation of CELAC represents the high point thus far in the foreign policy and regional emancipation process in the Caribbean, South and Central American region. Mexico, geographically part of North America, of course also belongs to CELAC.

Several factors brought about this development. One main reason was — and continues to be — that in the 1990s President Bill Clinton and later George W. Bush focused so intently on Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. As early as the start of the new millennium, neoconservative hardliners began criticizing the fact that Washington was neglecting its own backyard while the Europeans and Chinese steadily increased their economic presence there. The Bush administration tried to turn that situation around by announcing the formation of Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA), a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. But Bush Jr. ran aground at the 2005 America Summit in the Argentinian Mar del Plata. Brazil, the most influential of the region’s emerging nations, indicated it had no interest in subordinating its own foreign policy and economic interests to those of the United States. ALCA was doomed to fall apart.

In addition to that, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro founded the Bolivian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), not only linguistically, but also economically, industrially, socially, politically and culturally as a counter-model to ALCA.

Various integration attempts in South America were embodied in the Union of South American Nations in 2008. From its conception, it was meant as a competitor project to the OAS. Washington took up the gauntlet and reacted with, among other things, the coup in Honduras. UNASUR, while politically determined, was unable to prohibit the establishment of the coup government.

Concurrent with that, the United States increased its military presence in the region by reactivating the Fourth Fleet. As previously, the U.S. Southern Command oversees the entire CELAC region. The region is an economic sphere with a GDP of $6.3 trillion and oil reserves of some 338 billion barrels. Not a pleasant prospect if the United States and the European Union have to negotiate with CELAC.