Obama Should Make a Clean Break With the Past on Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2008

Obama Should Make a Clean Break With the Past on Latin America
Tuesday 02 December 2008
by: Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research

President-elect Obama's historic triumph was welcomed in Latin America by left-of-center governments who saw it as a continuation of their own electoral victories. Even before the election, President Lula da Silva of Brazil said, "Just as Brazil elected a metal worker, Bolivia elected an Indian, Venezuela elected Chavez and Paraguay a bishop, I think that it would be an extraordinary thing if, in the largest economy in the world, a black man were elected president of the United States."

Obama has an opportunity to forge a new relationship with the region after his predecessor drove US-Latin American relations into a ditch. But it will require a major change in Washington's attitude toward our southern neighbors.

Most importantly, as the Brookings Institution recently noted, the Obama administration will have to abandon Bush's efforts to divide the left-of-center governments into a "good left" and "bad left," rewarding the former and punishing the latter. Most recently, the Bush administration decided to punish Bolivia by suspending their trade preferences and threatening tens of thousands of jobs there - allegedly for not cooperating in the "war on drugs."

Bolivia's President Evo Morales was in Washington this month and met with Sen. Richard Lugar. Senator Lugar is the most influential Republican on foreign policy issues and is very close to President-elect Obama - who, according to rumors here, offered him the position of secretary of state. Lugar issued a very positive press statement on the meeting with Evo: "The United States regrets any perception that it has been disrespectful, insensitive, or engaged in any improper activities that would disregard the legitimacy of the current Bolivian government or its sovereignty," he said. "We hope to renew our relationship with Bolivia, and to develop a rapport grounded on respect and transparency."

Although Evo Morales handed this statement to the Washington Post, neither the meeting with Lugar nor Lugar's statement made it into the print edition of the Post's article on Evo's visit. This indicates that the Obama administration will have to confront not only the State Department, but also some of the major media if it wants to change relations with Latin America.

More:
http://www.truthout.org/120308R