Actualidad
US Foreign Policy toward South American Authoritarianism
Among all the criticism aimed at the United States from all over the world, perhaps its clumsiness regarding foreign policy is the soundest. At least, when it comes to its recurring strategic mistakes toward Latin America.
Decades ago, the US allowed the appearance of the Cuban merciless dictator, Fidel Castro. They also strengthened the continental anti-Americanism, providing the Cuban tyrant with an excuse to criticize all America does.
Paradoxically, the world demands that the United States respects the Cubans’ human rights, when, in fact, it is Castro who has systematically infringed them since he took office. However, because of a blockade that is verbal rather than real, the US takes the blame for someone else’s wrongs.
History tells us that the United States did not discourage the military coups in the Southern Cone during the ‘80s and that, just as serenely, it stopped supporting them in the ‘90s and seemed enthusiastic about the democratizing processes. It turned a blind eye to the violation of human rights when terrorism plagued South America, and now it expects support in its anti-terrorist crusade from the very same countries that had to defeat, by themselves, the guerrillas trained and financed by international communism.
Most probably, this recent turn to the left in South American countries is not the foremost concern for the US authorities; however, the Morales-Kirchner-Chávez axis is a potentially problematic element, due to its explicit anti-Washington stance.
The recent Argentine refusal to send troops to Lebanon and the country’s vote for the incorporation of Venezuela in the United Nations Security Council have both upset the American authorities, whether they admit it or not.
Taking all of this into account, the fact that the influential Thomas Shannon, top authority of Latin American policy in the State Department, describes the relationship between his country and Argentina as “great” is hypocritical and a serious strategic mistake. Not to mention his lack of timing: this unfortunate statement was made only a few days after the United States let Argentina know that commercial preferences for our country were could be over, a legitimate sanction after the series of Argentine misconducts toward the Northern power.
Shannon’s statement is hypocritical because anyone who is reasonably well-informed knows it is false and neither the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, nor the White House, nor the local influential political or business circles believe it. It is no secret that Kirchner’s administration does not hold the United States in general or the current Republican leadership in particular in high esteem.
That said, it is also a strategic mistake of the American foreign policy to imply that the American government is satisfied with its Argentine counterpart’s actions, because it baffles those in our country who, outnumbered and in completely unfavorable conditions, courageously voice their opposition to the Latin American authoritarianisms and to the progressive isolation toward which Néstor Kirchner is leading us.
If the State Department is dreaming about this kind of statement causing even the least and most fleeting approach, it would be convenient if Mr. Shannon was reassigned to a different function: in that case, this would not be a mere appreciation mistake, but a very misguided assessment of his international alliances.
Those who do not give up and keep explaining the United States, again and again, that the Argentine idiosyncrasy is miles away from the Anglo Saxon would celebrate an acknowledgement from the North, once and for all, of what is whispered all around about Latin American authoritarianisms. .
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(C) HACER Hispanic American Center for Economic Research
http://hacer.org
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Comentarios (Publicar Nuevo Comentario - Post New Comment)
| Usuario: JAJAhh |
María,
I mostly agree with your view on US foreign policy except for a couple of points. I will try to coment on those points I am interested in by folowing the order they appear in your article:
Based on US declassified documents on Argentina's situation in the 70's and 80's, we now know that the US was following very closely the guerrillas in Latin America. In cases like El Salvador or Nicaragua, they intervined directly sending weapons or training locals in the use of anti-guerrilla warfare.
They knew exctly what was going on in Argentina, for they had interviews with head military officials at the time. I am inclined to think that in our case, they didn't intervine due to the fact that the FFAA were fighting the guerrillas successfully. The Americans are generally reluctant to intervine militarily in Latin America and there is a good reason for that: we are their neighbors. And they want to keep it that way.
Painfully, I must say that Shannon's words sound to me more than "Argentina can do whatever she wants". We are not in their agenda. That's clear to me. It maybe sounds a bad strategy to you. To me, is more a pragmatic one. They don't have a strategy towards Argentina and there isn't any. We are not their priority.
Americans don't care about Kirchner either. And believe me when I tell you that opposition voices against Kirchner don't sound so powerful at all up here. We don't even hear them.
I don't think it's up to the American government to change. It's us who have to show them we have changed. They see us as a country that defaulted its debt, fired the IMF, received Chavez with open arms to booh the US president (no matter which party he belongs to), and falls into political crisis every ten years.
Saludos,
Cristina
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