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Joint TAP/Campus Progress intern Jake Blumgart has a smart piece at CP about the state of debate on Latin American policy:
Many held high hopes for the hearing, which was the first held by a foreign affairs subcommittee post-inauguration. Titled “U.S. Policy Toward Latin America in 2009 and Beyond,” the meeting could have signaled a new chapter in U.S.-Latin American relations—which would have come as a relief to many in the hemisphere after eight years of disastrous Bush administration policies (on Cuba, drugs, and immigration, to name a few). But as the hearing got underway, McClintock—and anyone else who hopes Barack Obama’s mantra of change will apply to Latin America, too—was sorely disappointed. Instead of charting a new way forward in U.S.-Latin American relations, the hearing reconfirmed America’s commitment to polices that have been overwhelmingly rejected across the region. Both representatives and witnesses adhered to the tired solutions of the past, promoting Cold War era animosity and discredited neoliberal trade policies that do not reflect the new political realities in Latin America or the promise of Obama’s multilateral foreign policy. As it turns out, the new U.S. policy towards Latin America will look awfully familiar.Jake is getting ahead of the story with his prescriptive argument. This congressional sub-committee does not, thankfully, represent American foreign policy, nor will it have a huge say on specific foreign policy issues in Latin America; House Republicans will have next to no influence. It's the policymakers in the administration itself who will make the important choices, and no one there has gotten out front yet on Latin America. But Jake's reporting on the rigid conventional wisdom surrounding the region does give a good preview of the lay of the land the administration will have to traverse if it does seek change. A look at the old campaign website on Latin America gives you some ideas of their priorities: On the positive side, furthering diplomatic engagement across the board, and especially with loosened travel restrictions in Cuba (though not loose enough for my tastes). But principles on trade agreements and rethinking the failing "War on Drugs" are much more ambiguous, and as Jake points out, likely to come after a number of agenda items higher up on the president's list. As the administration does begin to roll out its ideas for Latin America -- likely in the run up to the Summit of the Americas at the end of April -- we'll begin to get an idea of whether Jake's picture of the status quo accurately represents the Obama's approach, or whether he'll bring a fresher approach to our under-appreciated neighbors to the south.
-- Tim Fernholz
