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 Editorials | Opinions | March 2007 
'The United States has No More Important Relationship'
 Frida Ghitis - Star-Telegram
| | George W. Bush and Vicente Fox board Marine One. |
Some statements go down in history with such a painful belly flop that one can never again quote them without thoroughly soaking them in the deceptively soothing balm of irony.
Consider the words of President Bush on Sept. 5, 2001, little more than seven months into his first term. That day, Bush stood next to Mexican President Vicente Fox on the South Lawn and earnestly declared, "The United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico."
Six days later, the World Trade Center smoldered in ruins; Washington's best-laid plans for Latin America lay asunder, thoroughly torn. Mexico, and the rest of Latin America, had tumbled from the top spot in the priority rankings all the way to practically off the list.
Fast-forward to 2007.
With just two years left in the beleaguered Bush administration, the White House has suddenly rediscovered Latin America. Did you know that 2007 is officially "The Year of Engagement with Latin America"?
We can credit Washington's hemispheric U-turn to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the proud standard-bearer of international leftist anti-Americanism. Chávez, however, must share the honor for turning Washington's eyes southward.
Yes, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the man who truly awakened the White House from its continental slumber. If the Atomic-or-Bust Ahmadinejad can tour Washington's back yard, as he did in January, then so can - and must - Bush.
And so, only a few days after the very right-wing Ahmadinejad cemented his strange-bedfellows friendship with Chávez and other Latin American leftists, the White House announced that the American president, too, would make the trip.
Beginning Thursday, President Bush will visit five Latin American countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. The presidential travels follow visits this year by a number of high-level administration officials.
It's a pity that Washington waited this long to pay attention to the region, but at least Washington appears to have a better understanding of Latin America. For much too long, the U.S. played right into Hugo Chávez's game, engaging in unnecessary verbal jousting that served only to polish Chávez's anti-American credentials.
After focusing much of its limited Latin America resources on Cuba policy, the administration finally appears to have gained some insights into what matters in Latin America.
White House spokesman Tony Snow announced the trip by saying it would "highlight our common agenda to advance freedom, prosperity and social justice." The "freedom agenda" doesn't mean much in the region, except perhaps in Cuba. But by pointing to the need for social justice in countries with such lopsided economies - where a tiny percentage are extraordinarily rich and a majority are desperately poor - Washington is beginning to show that it gets it.
Any politician who fails to acknowledge that aspect of Latin American reality will fail to make inroads. And politicians who speak of that inequality and do something about it are not the enemy. That is why Bush can visit countries like Uruguay and Brazil, whose presidents are leftists but are not Chávez clones.
The State Department's Thomas Shannon noted this when he said that what matters in Latin America, more than a party's political philosophy, is its ability to "offer a social program or a social agenda that meets the concerns of voters."
The White House also has realized that the broken promise of Sept. 5, 2001, to Mexico's now former-President Fox proved disastrous to a U.S.-friendly politician who expected Washington to keep its word. Washington's betrayal is one of the reasons that the election to succeed Fox came less than 1 percentage point from bringing to power a man who would have made life much more difficult for the U.S. That's why a visit to Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderón, is high on the agenda.
The U.S. has lost much ground by ignoring the region. That miscalculation gave an opening to countries like Venezuela and Iran, eager to push in wherever Washington looked weak. Sure, 9-11 was a legitimate reason to change priorities, but we expect the U.S. to manage to high art of walking and chewing gum at the same time. The region should not have been ignored.
When Bush begins his visits, he will find that much damage was done by his administration's neglect and by a policy that, until now, evokes little more than an irony-drenched memory of promising speeches and lost opportunities.
Frida Ghitis, a freelance writer in Decatur, Ga., writes about world affairs and is author of "The End of Revolution: a Changing World in the Age of Live Television." |
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