Posted on 04/29/2002 1:37:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK - The Bush administration badly needs a success story in Latin America, but its focus on the Middle East and the war on terrorism seems to be keeping it from doing something to avert a disaster closer to home.
In recent weeks, I have heard growing numbers of top Latin American officials -- including some of President Bush's best friends in the hemisphere -- complain about the U.S. failure to offer carrots to bankrupt countries such as Argentina or to help more promising nations such as Mexico and Chile become role models for the rest of the region.
We are likely to hear some of these concerns at Mexican President Vicente Fox's scheduled May 8 speech to a New York business audience, according to well-placed Mexican sources. In a telephone interview, Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda denied that Fox will criticize Bush, but said he may talk about the ''difficulties'' in materializing joint plans to upgrade bilateral relations.
BAD TIMING
The U.S. paralysis in Latin America -- which is as much the fault of the Bush administration as of the Democratic-controlled Senate -- could hardly come at a worse time. After more than two decades of relative stability, several political and economic crises are rocking the region.
Argentina has defaulted on its foreign debt and is on the verge of political anarchy; Venezuela's democracy is hanging by a thread following bloody riots and a short-lived military coup; Colombia's guerrilla war is intensifying; and several other South American countries suffer growing political unrest.
And Latin America as a whole is wondering whether Bush will succeed in convincing the Senate to pass a ''fast-track'' bill to expedite a 34-nation agreement to launch a hemisphere-wide free trade area by 2005. A Senate vote on the issue could come as early as Tuesday and, if approved, the bill would go to the full Congress.
Sure, the Bush administration says it remains fully committed to the region-wide free trade agreement and is pressing Senate Democrats to pass it. But skeptics wonder -- rightly -- why a U.S. president with a 75 percent approval rating has not spent more of his political capital on an issue that he has defined as a top priority of his foreign policy agenda.
Even Mexico, which Bush described last year as ''the most important bilateral relationship'' for the United States in the world, is showing signs of impatience.
After eight years of a largely successful free trade agreement with the United States and several meetings between Fox and Bush that were billed as the start of a special relationship, many Mexicans are beginning to complain about the lack of tangible results.
SOME SUCCESS
Indeed, Fox has turned around Mexico's foreign policy toward more pro-American stands and has succeeded in getting Bush to discuss issues that previous U.S. presidents had refused to touch, such as ''regularization'' of Mexican undocumented workers in U.S. territory.
But these talks have not yet produced concrete measures, and Fox is under growing attack in the Mexican Congress, where the opposition majority charges him with having sold out to the United States without getting anything in return.
''We have made great conceptual progress with the United States in this year and a quarter,'' Foreign Minister Castañeda told me. ``We are having difficulty in translating this conceptual progress into specific policies and concrete agreements that would have a direct impact on people's lives.''
Other well-placed analysts are much more blunt.
''There is a growing feeling in Mexican government circles that we are being treated with benign neglect,'' said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a university professor and publisher of the Mexico City-based magazine Foreign Affairs en Español.
Robert Pastor, an Emory University specialist on Latin America and former Carter administration official, said, ``Bush has so frustrated the Mexicans by his failure to respond seriously to any initiative that his most important relationship is now endangered.''
WHAT TO DO?
What could Bush do? He could take several measures that would give Fox something to show at home, such as giving legitimacy to ID cards Mexican consulates are handing out to Mexican undocumented workers in the United States or submitting migration legislation to Congress to get Washington to focus on the issue.
If the Bush administration won't put its full political weight behind the hemisphere-wide free trade zone, and if it's not going to rescue bankrupt countries, the least it should do is help the best performers in the region become democratic and free market success stories. Otherwise, there won't be an incentive for others to follow in their steps.
Robert Pastor is traveling with Jimmy Carter to visit Castro
Robert Pastor: National Security Council (1977-81), was a fellow with Carter Center: Robert A. Pastor Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New .
I guess he's going to reminisce with Jimmy and Fidel about setting up Cuban - U.S. Interest Sections and lifting of travel ban during Carter's presidency.
Here's another fellow traveler joining their trip - Executive Director of Carter Institute: Dr. John Hardman - Child psychiatrist --headed the Initiative to Reduce Global Tobacco Use. *** During his 1977-1981 presidential term, Carter slightly eased diplomatic and the travel restrictions to Cuba.
I guess he's going to tell Castro to stop making cigars and give Elian a once over.
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March 2002 - Bush to Be Tough on U.S. Aid During LatAm Trip***WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will go to a U.N. development conference in Mexico this week with a tough-love message that the United States will withhold aid to countries that do nothing to fight corruption.
"It makes no sense to give aid to countries that are corrupt because you know what happens? The money doesn't help the people, it helps an elite group of leaders," Bush said.
The president will take the message to the U.N. Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, where he will arrive Thursday night. He also will meet Andean leaders in Peru and Central American leaders in El Salvador before returning to Washington Sunday.
During his talks with world leaders at the conference, Bush will promote his initiative to help poor nations that respect human rights, root out corruption, open their markets, and have education and health care systems.
"I'm going to be tough about it," Bush told a group of regional reporters Tuesday in a preview of his trip. "I'm not interested in funding corruption." ***
_________ U.N. Human Rights Meeting Protects Oppressors - Mexico supports U.S. on Terrorism*** Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Federation of Human Rights said they were dismayed that Mexico withdrew a resolution urging that counterterrorist measures be compatible with international humanitarian law. The U.N. human rights commissioner would have been responsible for monitoring and analyzing those measures, according to the resolution.
The United States - which has been criticized widely for its treatment of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and its detentions of Middle Eastern nationals who violated visa regulations - opposed the resolution. "This could have been one of the most important outcomes from this Commission, but instead has become one of its lowest points," the advocacy groups said in a statement.***
One thing not mentioned by this article (of course) is that Latin America was completely neglected for eight years by one Bill Clinton, and it's going to take a while to build new policies to deal with it.
AMEN! The Venezuelans I work with tell me they would like a Pinochet, but will have to sweat out Chavez for the time being.
That eigth year void has left us a lot of big problems. Thank goodness Algore isn't in the White House!
The Senate is no-track or back-track. I'd like to see some real thought coming from the most "deliberate" body in the world.
I'd also like to see a more red white and blue attitude on the Hill. The only place it's coming from these days is the White House.
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