| | |  Americas & Beyond | January 2009 
Latin America's Tempered Obama-Mania
 Frida Ghitis - World Politics Review
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| | Newspapers show coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009. (AP/Gregory Bull) | |
When throngs of Brazilians take to the streets of Rio de Janeiro next month for the famous Carnival, Barack Obama will be there, dancing to the sultry beat of the samba. Obama masks are all the rage as preparations for the Carnival kick into high gear. When the party starts, hundreds, maybe thousands of Brazilians with Obama masks will hit the streets. Not surprisingly, the new president of the United States has become a celebrity in Latin America, just as he has in the rest of the planet.
While at times it seems the entire globe is cheering Obama in unison, in Latin America, Obama-mania has a different pitch. To be sure, there was excitement, even exuberance, on Inauguration Day, when the presidency of George W. Bush ended and the first African-American president came to power in Washington. But the good feelings were tempered by indications that the region figures far down the long list of Obama's priorities.
During the inaugural speech, as the brand new president made many direct and indirect allusions to different parts of the world, it was difficult to pinpoint where exactly Latin America could hear its name called. For many in the region, the magic of the moment survived, but expectations did not soar.
Even before Obama took the oath of office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez broke the spell. Obama, he said, carried the "stench" of George W. Bush. The remark recalled an incident at the United Nations in 2006, when Chávez called Bush "the devil," and claimed he could smell sulfur at the podium after the U.S. president had addressed the General Assembly.
Chávez had reason to be disappointed. If he had harbored any illusions that Obama would mark a sharp reversal from Bush, they were shattered when the then-president-elect accused him of blocking progress in the region and "exporting terrorist activities." To Chávez, the name or skin color of the man in the Oval Office doesn't make that much difference. After all, he explained, "[t]his is the U.S. Empire we're talking about."
For Venezuela's neighbor and rival, Colombia, Obama's accession is also potentially troubling. Like much of the rest of the world, Colombians had mixed feelings at best about Obama's predecessor. But Bush had a close relationship with Colombia's extremely popular president, Álvaro Uribe. In fact, one of the outgoing president's final acts in office was bestowing a high honor on the Colombian leader. Bush also worked tirelessly, if unsuccessfully, to press the U.S. Congress to ratify a free trade deal with Colombia.
The trade agreement became an unlikely issue during the campaign, with Obama forcefully denouncing it on human rights grounds. Colombians may be breathing a sigh of relief, though, as recent reports indicate the new administration may work to modify and ratify the trade agreement.
Another area of frustrated expectations is Cuba. Latin American governments have long lined up behind Havana in demanding that the U.S. lift its four-decade-old trade embargo on the communist island. For a time there was much hope that an Obama administration would quickly move to undo sanctions. But signals from the new White House show no hurry to reverse course on Cuba policy. The Obama administration will apparently ease travel rules for relatives of people living in Cuba, but a drastic change in policy will have to wait, perhaps for the passing of Fidel Castro and a symbolic new beginning in relations between the two countries.
Other left-leaning Latin American nations have also appeared decidedly cool to the new occupant of the Oval Office. Argentine President Cristina Kirchner happened to be in Havana when Obama took office, and met with Chávez in Caracas the next day. Her words were generous towards the new president, if hardly effusive. It was good, she said, to have a president with "intelligence and rationality."
In Latin America, the fading of illegal immigration from the front pages of U.S. newspapers is a welcome development, and a toning down of rhetoric after the Bush years could not have come one day too soon. But those are not the region's top priorities.
In Brazil, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, known by all as Lula, expressed a more specific hope: that Washington will roll up its sleeves and bring a successful completion to the Doha round of world trade talks. During his weekly radio address, Lula blamed the Bush administration for failing to provide the necessary leadership because at the critical moment in the talks, the administration was nearing the end of its term.
Lula, who has made Brazil a key player in international trade negotiations, said success at Doha is key to helping developing countries with agriculture-based economies move out of poverty.
From Mexico's Rio Grande to Chile's Patagonia, the symbolic significance of Obama's election was felt throughout Latin America. In the end, however, the continent that stands on the threshold between poverty and prosperity knows that its future is intricately linked with that of the United States. Symbolism may provide excitement on Inauguration Day and ideas for new costumes during Carnival in Rio. But what really matters is something much more substantial.
Before he took office, Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who expressed his heartfelt wishes for an economic recovery north of Mexico's border. Without strong U.S. markets in which to sell their exports, Latin Americans know their economies will struggle. Even if Obama does not shift his focus sharply towards the south, should his economic policies succeed, Latin America will have gained from his election.
Frida Ghitis is an independent commentator on world affairs and a World Politics Review contributing editor. Her weekly column, World Citizen, appears every Thursday. |
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