Latin Americadrifting away from US President Bush
By Bradley Brooks,
UPI Business Correspondent
Mexico President,Vicente Fox
RIO DE JANEIRO, (UPI) -- The MBA presidentis MIA in Latin America.
U.S. President George Bush, who vowed duringhis presidential campaign that the countries south of the RioGrande would receive ample attention should he take power, isletting the region drift further away from the United States thanit has in years.
Begin with Mexico, the U.S. gateway to LatinAmerica and its largest trading partner in the region. PresidentVicente Fox, Bush's old friend from his days as Texas governor,was led to believe after his remarkable ascension to power in2000 that the U.S.-Mexico relationship would blossom with a BushWhite House.
From Mexico's point of view, Fox has donehis best to cozy up with the United States, but he has receiveda cold shoulder on the big initiative he has placed on the table-- the liberalization of immigration policy. Fox is now payinga heavy political price at home, especially after he recentlypushed Mexico to vote at a U.N. conference to urge Cuba to improveits human rights, breaking Mexico's four-decade tradition of keepingmute on any such measure.
Political opponents of Fox accuse him ofselling out to the gringos for no good reason, and to date theUnited States has given the leader precious little to combat thesesentiments.
Speaking earlier this month in New Yorkbefore the Council of the Americas, a free trade organization,Fox admitted that Mexico has seen few tangible results for itsincreased cooperation with the United States.
Without relaxing immigration policies, suchas giving legal status to some Mexicans working illegally in theUnited States and providing more visas for those who wish to workup north, Fox said it is going to be difficult if not impossiblefor him to get Congress to move on liberalizing Mexico's economy.At the top of Fox's list is opening up his country's telecommunicationsand utility sectors to more foreign investment, but the oppositionis not going to budge if it doesn't see the United States as givinganything in return.
In Brazil, which earlier this year teemedwith economic potential after undergoing reforms beginning withthe devaluation of its currency in 1999, there is now a real tasteto do battle with the United States over its protectionist tradestance.
Brazilian officials said earlier this weekthat the country has filed before the World Trade Organizationa complaint against the United States for its new steel tariffs,which are as high as 30 percent. Those tariffs, coupled with therecent $190 billion U.S. farm bill, has many in Brazil ready tobacktrack on reforms. Why play by free-market rules, the argumentrightly goes, if the world's economic superpower won't?
This is terribly bad timing for United Statesto pose a protectionist threat, as it only gives votes to theleading candidate for October's presidential elections in Brazil,Lula da Silva, founder of the Workers Party, who will undoubtedlyturn back reforms made during the two terms of President FernandoHenrique Cardoso.
Then there is Chile, which just inked atrade deal with the European Union. The country, which began negotiationswith the United States on a similar trade deal before approachingthe EU, has seen hopes of reaching a timely accord with the UnitedStates dashed as Bush's push for trade promotion authority faltered.As the EU makes modest advances in Latin America, the United Statesstalls.
Argentina, meanwhile, hangs on the brink,awaiting aid from the International Monetary Fund and receivingonly impotent words of support from the United States. The blameundoubtedly lies primarily with Argentina's own corrupt and inefficientpolitical machine. But the fact remains that in Latin America,the country is seen as the one that took the biggest bite of Washington'sfree-market pie, undergoing reforms pushed by the United Statesand the IMF in the early 1990s. Argentina's utter failure doesnothing to bolster support for the classic liberal economic thinkers,who are pushing for privatization and opening of markets.
In Venezuela, the world's No. 4 oil exporter,Bush lost a grand opportunity to help de-vilify the United Statesand its involvement in Latin American politics, replete with arecord of supporting brutal dictatorships in the region duringthe Cold War. The U.S. failure to condemn the temporary ousterof the democratically elected President Hugo Chavez only reinforceddoubts in Uncle Sam's resolve in seeing democracy reign in LatinAmerica.
Earlier this week, Bush strongly reiteratedthat the United States would not lift a trade embargo on Cuba,where a regime known for human rights abuses continues to rule.Meanwhile, the United States pushes for increased ties to China,where a regime known for human rights abuses continues to rule.
This contradiction is not lost on LatinAmericans, and most are quite aware that Florida, where anti-CastroCuban-Americans reside, was a key political state to Bush's 2000election and where his brother Jeb is facing a re-election campaignfor governor against former Attorney General Janet Reno.
The countries of Latin America are likepieces of a jigsaw puzzle that, if brought together, comprisewhat could be a picture of democratic reform and economic stability.When looked at individually, they may seem of little significance.After all, what would a trade agreement with little Chile andits 15 million inhabitants really do for the U.S. economy?
On the face of it, not much. But it, andother seemingly small agreements with other nations, would signalto the region that the United States is serious about promotingeconomic and political advancement. It would indicate that thedays of operating covertly in the region, as the United Statesdid during its battles against communism, are over, and that transparencyis the rule of the day. It would advance the relationship betweenthe United States and Latin America beyond the thinking of theMonroe Doctrine, with the region being considered not simply asthe backyard of the United States, but as its neighbor and partner.
And, as we all know, a neighborhood is madethe better when one has the trust and confidence that those livingjust down the road mean us no harm.