Obama Has Historic Opportunity to Improve Ties With Latin America

The Center for Economic and Policy Research joins a consensus
of experts on the region in welcoming the opportunity for improved
relations between the United States and Latin America, which have
deteriorated enormously over the past eight years.

"President-elect Obama is being welcomed with open arms and great hope
from leaders across the political spectrum in Latin America," noted
CEPR's co-Director Mark Weisbrot.
"But he will face obstacles -- not from the South, but rather from
influential sectors of Washington's foreign policy establishment," he
added.

Weisbrot said that this establishment has been in denial about the
political and economic changes that have been sweeping across the
region over the past decade, in which voters have repeatedly rejected
"Washington Consensus" economic policies in more than a dozen national
elections. He noted that the United States' most influential
periodical on foreign policy, the Council on Foreign Relations'
publication, Foreign Affairs,
had not published a single article in the last decade that viewed Latin
America's shift toward left-of-center democracies in a positive light.

"If we look at how these people have treated the elected governments of
Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador . . . their writings range from
criticism to outright contempt and condescension," said Weisbrot. "They
have also failed to recognize the root causes of the regional revolt at
the ballot box - especially the failure of Washington-backed economic
policies to deliver economic growth."

President Lula da Silva of Brazil hailed Obama's election
as "an extraordinary event" and called on him to lift the embargo
entirely on Cuba, saying "there is no explanation for that blockade,"
as did Evo Morales of Bolivia. Last week the United Nations, for the
17th year in a row, called on the United States to end the embargo. The
vote was 185 to 3.

Weisbrot said that, "Obama will need to look beyond most of the
Washington foreign policy establishment and begin a dialogue with Latin
America's elected leaders themselves - in order to improve relations
with our southern neighbors. But there is no doubt that the region is
ready for a better relationship."

Some 368 scholars who specialize in Latin America sent a letter to
Senator Obama, calling on him to "Become a partner, rather than an
adversary, concerning changes already underway [in Latin America]." The
scholars noted that "Washington's tendency to fight against hope and
change has been especially prominent in recent U.S. responses to the
democratically elected governments of Venezuela and Bolivia."