Hillary Clinton Recognizes Multi-Polar World, Failures of U.S. Latin America Policy

Hillary Clinton Recognizes Multi-Polar World, Failures of U.S. Latin America Policy
Mark Weisbrot
Posted May 6, 2009 | 05:18 PM (EST)

Three years ago I wrote an article arguing that the political changes sweeping across Latin America were epoch-making and probably irreversible, and that they would fundamentally alter the relationship between the region and the United States. Some of the most important economic causes of the region's shift to the left - including the unprecedented long-term growth failure since 1980 - were unrecognized then and remain mostly unacknowledged to this day.

At the time, Washington's stated strategy was to isolate Venezuela from its neighbors. This was before the election of additional left governments in Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Paraguay, and El Salvador. I argued that this strategy was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what was happening in the region, and that it would only succeed in isolating the United States from its southern neighbors.

snip

"We're facing an almost united front against the United States regarding Cuba. Every country, even those with whom we are closest, is just saying you've got to change."

She didn't mention that they are also saying that Washington must change its policy toward Venezuela. President Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has consistently defended President Chavez of Venezuela, has told President Obama as much and reportedly counseled him at the Summit of the Americas not to listen to his advisers - most of whom have appeared to seek continued hostility toward Venezuela and possibly Bolivia.

It is remarkable that pressure for a reality-based view of the world has had to come from the South, and says a lot about the state of civil society in the United States. How is it that nobody from our leading foreign policy institutions could have figured this out years ago? On Cuba, there has been dissent -- partly because there are powerful business interests that want access to the island, and partly because 47 years of failure is a long time even for slow learners. But on Venezuela, the primary focus of U.S. foreign policy in the hemisphere for the past seven years, there has been an overwhelming consensus of fantasy and hype. Hugo Chavez is the only democratically elected leader in the world, facing a media that is still overwhelmingly controlled by his political opposition, to be successfully maligned as a "dictator." And a threat to the United States - what exactly has he done to the United States, anyway, other than provide a $100 million annual subsidy to poor people here for heating oil?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/hillary-clinton-recognize_b_198229.html

(This was originally in The Guardian but their headline was sort of negative about the Obama administration where imho, Mark is making a positive statement about a welcome shift in our LatAm policy.)

-- something that could happen if Cuba would only stop punching our fist with her face.

President Lula seems to be well liked by Mr. Obama. They seem to have a lot in common -- both popular, patient, somewhat pragmatic, smarter than most of the other people in any room and possessed of a good sense of humor.





I am hopeful we will see some positive developments.

Whew!