It is easy to forget anything that isn't Obama, McCain, Palin, Bush, Afghanistan or economy-related. The focus has been kept on the most pressing, immediate storylines and threats. However, this monomania has put us in binds before (Iraq, dismissing Aghanistan; trade deficit and unemployment, looking away from the mortgage debacle; Saddam over Osama; and Palin over every other possible option). In the case of foreign policy, the inability of our President and national conversation to multi-task efficiently between equally important topics has left us jumping from one to the other, leaving behind a pile of unaccomplished missions and torn alliances.
This could soon be the case with Latin America. As far back as the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has treated Latin America like its little brother, ready to be taught and tussled with when we deemed it necessary. "Our backyard" has a long history of American interference, for the better (the 1994 bailout of Mexico amidst a financial crisis) or for the worse (the 1954 coup of Guatemala's Jacobo Arbenz because of the financial interests of United Fruit and our government officials' stake in the company). Like the bruised little brother, Latin America has gotten used to the heavy hand of American surveillance.
These days, it looks like it needs it. The complexities of Latin American continue to grow, as do its conflicts and turbulence. In Mexico, drug wars are pitting narco-dealers against cops, cops against the military, and civilians against the government. The bloody headlines involve the latest "ajuste de cuentas" (settling debts between drug cartels) on a daily basis. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez rules with half of the country against him, and half of the country in devotion to him. The rise in oil prices has given him unprecented power, and he is wielding that power to tarnish the American image and begin to build an Anti-American coalition of Latin American nations. In Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe is consistently being linked to far-right paramilitaries that are entrenched in a violent war with far-left revolutionaries (the FARC), jeopardizing his legitimacy to rule and killing innocent civilians in the meanwhile. Across the region, the recent financial meltdown has made things worse, laying off millions, and leaving a part of the world that has disliked George Bush's patronizing presence from the moment he set foot on their land with the most bitter of after tastes.
The American government, however, has decided to practice a hands-off approach for the first time in a long time. It has mostly stayed out of the way of Latin American trainwrecks, and only decides to intervene when its own honor (barking back at Chavez) is at stake.
This will bite them soon enough.
The other half of America may not be at the same level of turmoil as the Middle East or West Africa, but it is still our neighbor. The repercussions of an ambivalence toward their tumultous reality will be felt much quicker than coming from anywhere else. Our decision to take a quick fix approach to the Mexican economy's troubles in the 60's by introducing the 'braceros' program did very little to help Mexico, and instead was partly to blame for the increasing stream of undocumented workers that have come to the US ever since. Our ambivalence toward Argentina's financial mismanagement led to a crisis they are barely getting out of, one that many Argentinians feel is as much the US's fault as their own government's. These are only a few examples of what American monomania has produced. The inability to look at issues in a more comprehensive manner has made our future that much more vulnerable.
America has many disgruntled customers, some of which have threatened the security of the country. Latin America is not one of those. But the constant brush off they have put up with over the last 8-10 years has made them suspicious of America, the big brother. Little brother is tired of being pushed around and paid attention to only when big brother has no one else with who to yell at. Soon enough, little brother will grow and start fighting back.
lhp
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