Posted on 06/29/2003 4:58:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Only a few weeks after they were trading insults over the war with Iraq, the Bush administration and key European countries -- including France -- are quietly talking about a greater coordination on Latin American crises such as those in Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba.
Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio spent ''quite a long time'' discussing Latin America and possible areas of U.S.-European cooperation, Palacio told me in a telephone interview from Washington.
And the Bush administration is sending its special ambassador to Latin America, Otto J. Reich, to Spain, Italy and France next week to discuss the region's hottest crises, as well as lingering financial troubles in Brazil and Argentina, White House officials and Palacio told me.
Among the people who have been asked to meet with Reich is French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, the diplomat whose public criticism of the Iraq war so exasperated the White House. Others will be Spanish Ibero-American Cooperation Minister Miguel Angel Cortes and Italian and Vatican officials.
The most pressing issue on Reich's agenda will be Venezuela, U.S. officials say.
The administration fears that Venezuela's populist leftist President Hugo Chávez will renege on an internationally brokered agreement to convene a national referendum on the duration of his term, and that he will provoke a violent clash with the opposition in order to suspend constitutional guarantees and radicalize his ``Bolivarian revolution.''
''He is trying to create an incident where he can call out the military and say that democracy has been threatened,'' a U.S. official says.
GROUP OF FRIENDS
Several top administration officials are known to want to persuade the Europeans to revamp the ''Group of Friendly Countries'' that was created by Brazil to help broker the recent government-opposition referendum agreement.
U.S. officials are furious at statements by Brazil's ambassador to Venezuela last week, which they say effectively sided with Chávez against the opposition. The Brazil-led group ''should be a group of friends of Venezuela and not a group of friends of the Bolivarian project,'' one U.S. official says.
Among the ideas being floated by some U.S. officials is elevating the group's membership from vice ministers to former presidents to give it greater political weight. The revamped group could include people like former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo or former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González.
But getting the Bush administration and the 15-member European Union to agree on this will not be easy. Spain, which generally takes the lead in the European Union's common policy toward Latin America, is noncommittal.
''All opinions are respectable, but we have to first see how things develop,'' Palacio told me, referring to the proposal to revamp the group of friendly countries.
On Colombia, the Bush administration will try to convince European countries to make greater financial contributions at a July 10 conference of donor nations in London. ''The Europeans criticize us for putting too much resources on the military side, but they could do more on the economic side,'' one U.S. official says.
FREE TRADE
Again, the Europeans may see things differently. Palacio told me that the United States and the European Union should separately sign bilateral free trade agreements with Colombia. ''What Colombia needs is markets, because markets will bring investment, and investment will bring about jobs,'' Palacio said.
U.S. officials don't rule out a bilateral trade deal with Colombia, but say they would rather negotiate a wider deal with Andean nations, or all Latin American countries.
On Cuba, administration officials say they want to listen to the European Union's plans after it recently decided to suspend high-level diplomatic visits to the island.
The European measures, in response to Cuban President Fidel Castro's recent execution of three people and the jailing of 75 peaceful dissidents for up to 28 years, may bring Washington and Europe's views on Cuba closer, U.S. officials say.
My opinion on the inter-Atlantic cooperation effort? To a large extent, it's public relations. The Bush administration, stung by world criticism that it acted arrogantly in Iraq, wants to show that it can still work closely with its old European allies. And the Europeans, especially the French, are eager to erase the bitter feelings from the Iraq war.
But if the effort leads to a more multilateral U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, so much the better. Whether it's on Venezuela, Colombia or Cuba, a joint trans-Atlantic stand will be much more effective.
Another interesting post by you. Thank you.
These Latin countries are in such a mess, I wouldn’t want the job of trying to sort it all out. Maybe Hans Blix can take over once he retires from the U.N. (Just kidding.)
Venezuelans are till insisting they are going to remove Chavez before the end of this year. Although we have heard this before, I’m told not to underestimate them in their resolve.
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