By Wang Yusheng
The US media have gone all-out in their analysis and comments on
US President George W. Bush's ongoing five-nation visit in Latin
America. Yesterday Bush arrived in Mexico City on the last leg of
his trip, which has taken him to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and
Guatemala.
In varied degrees, all admit that US influence in Latin America
is on the wane, losing dominance in its backyard. Media have
highlighted the fact that, because the United States has been
focusing all its attention on anti-terrorism, it has not invested
enough in Latin America. It has simply ignored it.
So Bush has designated this year as the year of fulfilling the
US promise to Latin America.
Bush already announced that the United States would spend tens
of millions of dollars to improve education, housing and healthcare
across the region, in order to renew close relationships with Latin
American countries, repair the fence in its backyard, and compete
for influence in the area with anti-American leftists represented
by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The US media have been on target.
Ever since President James Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine
in 1823, which declared that Latin America was off limits to any
other world power, it has remained a reliable backyard of the
United States. Especially since the end of World War II, the United
States has had a say in all major Latin American affairs, extending
to orchestrating wars or regime changes against countries that
opposed it.
However, since the 1990s, it seems that the US policy has not
been achieving the desired effect.
In 2003, members of the Organization of American States (OAS)
unanimously condemned the failed coup in Venezuela, in line with
its Inter-American Democratic Charter.
Later, the OAS members vetoed the US-backed candidate for the
new OAS secretary-general. The American Free-Trade Zone, for which
the White House started to push in 2001, seems to be in tatters as
the Southern Common Market has evolved, linking four South American
countries with a population of 190 million.
Last year, elections took place in 10 countries in Latin
America, of which seven elected presidents were seen as either
anti-American or not worthy of American attention. Against the
wishes of the United States, Latin American countries also joined a
conference with heads of states from Arab countries last year.
As longtime leader of the Americas, the United States can no
longer sit still.
Bush has ventured south against all odds. The huge amount of
promised assistance from the US may not be able to pay to open all
channels and mend the fence. The US has to dig deeper into the
roots of its disfavor with the Latin American countries and work
harder at its strategic orientation.
Even without opening old wounds, the 1980s alone was the lost
decade for Latin America. In 1990, the US worked out the Washington
Consensus, which on the surface was attempting to help Latin
American countries to regain what they'd lost in the previous 10
years.
However in actuality, the 10 reform measures from the Washington
Consensus ignored the interests and realities of those countries
while demanding that they open all their manufacturing and capital
markets, loosen their control over foreign currencies, and achieve
an absolute market economy.
These measures, interfering in the internal affairs of these
countries, have done more harm than good for those countries.
Local Mexican media pointed out that the Washington Consensus
does not hide its intention of forcing the Americas onto the US
track, but not a single economic and political jacket the United
States has made fits the region.
The Latin American countries have also learned painful lessons
from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the shock therapy in
Russia.
As a result, these countries are in search of a growth formula
better suited to their own circumstances. They are demanding that
new cooperative relationships be established on an equal footing
with the United States.
Carrying with him plenty of offers on his visit to the five
countries in Latin America, Bush will surely make some headway in
improving US relations.
But the best way to basically reverse the deteriorating trend in
the relations between the United States and the region in the words
of local Mexican media is for the United States to recognize that
it has neither the responsibility nor the duty to order the Latin
American people around and tell them what to do.
Wang Yusheng is a senior diplomat and a Beijing-based
researcher in international relations.
(China Daily March 13, 2007)
