Obama's “new beginning” with Latin American countries

Photo: AP

ON 16th April, President Barack Obama said the US seeks a "new beginning" with Cuba and an "equal partnership" with all the nations of the Americas. Obama was addressing Latin American and Caribbean leaders at the fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Obama attended the Summit soon after an eight-day series of summits and meetings in Europe and Turkey. He faced a group of leaders far less forgiving than their European counterparts about the United States' central role in the global financial crisis.
The summit follows a historic thaw in relations between the US and Cuba. "The US seeks a new beginning with Cuba, an equal partnership with all the nations of the Americas." Obama told leaders gathered in Port of Spain, capital city of Trinidad & Tobago. President Obama met with thirty-three heads of state and government. Cuba was the only country in the hemisphere not invited since 1961. The fourth Summit took place in Argentina in 2005. At the summit in Argentina, President Bush was once seen all by himself as the other leaders chatted in small cliques.
During the eight years, the Bush administration was occupied with two wars and neglected its relations with Latin American countries which elected democratically left-wing governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Finding the vacuum, Russia and China turned their attention and consolidated their relations with them in the backyard of the US. It has been a diplomatic disaster for the US.
President Obama realised that the relations with the Latin American countries needed to be on the basis of trust and equality. Moreover, the US-led recession has hit hard the economy of the Latin American countries including the oil-rich Venezuela.
Mindful that foreign travel in the midst of a recession is risky politics, Obama gave a well-publicised speech on the struggling economy early in April, signalling that hemispheric affairs won't trump the downturn on his list of priorities. Heeding criticism that the US tended to operate unilaterally under Bush, Obama is signalling that he wants to listen. The US wants to cooperate with other nations on easing the economic crisis, curbing global warming and keeping people safe.
"We see this trip as part of the process of the United States re-engaging with this hemisphere," said Jeffrey Davidow, a former ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela who acted as an adviser of President Obama on the trip.
"Regional leaders will want to see a different tone and texture in the diplomacy of the new US administration," says Peter Hakim of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "But more than anything else, they will want to hear his thinking about concrete problems and opportunities," he adds.
Chavez hosted a mini-summit of his leftist allies on 15th April including Cuban President Raul Castro, in which he declared Cuba was "more democratic" than the United States.
During a visit to China last week following a stop in Iran, Chávez, who expelled the US ambassador in Caracas last year, said "no one can be ignorant that the centre of gravity of the world has moved to Beijing." He went on to declare that "the power of the US empire has collapsed."
Speaking from a meeting Chavez hosted in Venezuela, Raul Castro declared: "We have sent word to the US government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything."An inevitable focus of the summit was Cuba. The US faced pressure from other nations to drop its economic boycott of Cuba, a legacy of Cold War tensions dating back nearly half a century. Latin American leaders are also pushing for Cuba's reinsertion into the Organisation of American States (OAS). Its membership was suspended in 1962.
By June 1, all the Latin American countries will have normalized their relations with Cuba. Venezuela, Bolivia and other nations are expected to call for Cuba's full integration into the life of the hemisphere. According to some reports, they would not want to see any pre-conditions put on Cuba's return. It will be more about a symbolic shift in tone.
President Lula of Brazil has also made clear that, like virtually all the region's leaders, he wants to see a change in Washington's attitude towards Cuba. "There is no more Cold War, there is no more armed struggle," he has said, "and there's only one group which defends the armed struggle and that's the Farc [rebels in Colombia]".
Hoping to blunt criticism of the embargo, the Obama administration announced this week that it was lifting limitations on travel by Cuban Americans with family in Cuba and on the amount of money they may send back to their relatives. Obama's liberalization of travel amounts to a step toward normalized relations with Cuba. But in addition to Latin American leaders, members of Congress also want him to go further. Previously, Cubans had insisted their domestic politics were their own business, and administration officials were trying to determine what to make of the development.
Another country that presented the thornier diplomatic challenge during Obama's trip was Mexico. The Obama administration has been trying to make amends for a report to senators in February in which Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said that drug cartels impede "Mexico City's ability to govern parts of its territory." Still, political realities limit what the US will do to stop the southward flow of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers. Obama seems in no hurry to resurrect a US ban on assault weapons. Obama has shown Latin American leaders a new tone of listening to the concerns of the region and to offer a more multilateral and respectful approach.
Some say the date of the Summit was not a good one for the US because it fell on the anniversary of one of the worst US foreign policy fiascoes in recent history, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba on April 17-19, 1961.
The US has always dominated the politics of Latin American countries and the most obvious example was the coup by General Pinochet in 1973 killing the democratically elected left-wing President Salvador Allende of Chile.
President Obama's speech for "new beginning" with Latin American countries including Cuba on "equal partnership basis" is hopefully to usher in a new era in that hemisphere. It is a dramatic break from the hegemonistic policy of the US.
The author is former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.