Summit of the Americas

After a brief stop in Mexico City for discussions with President Felipe Calderon, President Barack Obama departed Friday for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, two islands comprising a nation off the coast of Venezuela. The leaders focused on the enormous drug traffic from Mexico into the United States, including the alarming and growing associated violence.
They agreed to disagree on the half-century U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Calderon noted the policy is older than either of the leaders, but has not brought down the Havana Communist regime. As his comments imply, the policy has also been counterproductive by isolating the U.S. among trading partners.
Meanwhile, President Raul Castro of Cuba has been in Venezuela, a principal ally and source of vital economic assistance, where radical President Hugo Chavez reconfirmed close partnership while denouncing Uncle Sam with his usual incendiary language. In particular, he has threatened to torpedo any concluding communiqué from the summit to protest exclusion of Cuba.
Obama’s stop in Mexico was shrewd as well as sensible. The history of relations between our two nations has often been troubled. Latin American resentment of the economic and political dominance by the giant neighbor to the north has been particularly apparent just south of the border.
Last month, the Pentagon released a report publicly stating that the power and violence of the Mexico drug cartels could result in a “failed state”. President Calderon reacted to the Pentagon report as a personal affront. In immediate response, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates rightly praised him for courage and dedication to ending corruption. Mexico’s Operation Clean-up includes approximately 50,000 Mexican troops deployed to combat drug trafficking in the most affected areas of the country.
Meanwhile, developments elsewhere in Latin America justify optimism concerning combating drugs and broader political as well as economic progress. Colombia has made major gains against the FARC, the very powerful drug cartel which until recently controlled substantial territory and seemed to be growing in influence. Introduction of U.S. advisers and helicopters was eerie and unnerving.
However, the FARC has been unsuccessful in efforts to transform a criminal enterprise into a populist revolutionary movement. Imaginative, daring government commando tactics have generated notable success. Reducing Colombia’s drug production indirectly assists Mexico’s anti-drug offensive.
Concerning Cuba, President Obama has just significantly eased restrictions on travel and financial transfers from the United States, while permitting telecommunications companies to pursue contracts in that country. In rapid response, President Castro has declared that Cuba is willing to negotiate with the U.S. without preconditions or restrictions on the agenda.
For decades, Fidel Castro periodically held out the prospect of accommodation, only to return to hostility, but today Cuba is particularly isolated. When the Castro brothers took power in 1959 and for many years thereafter, Latin America was generally characterized politically by dictatorships, though Communist Cuba remained distinctive. Today, the enormous region is populated by representative democracies. Even Chavez must face the people at the ballot box, and recently has lost on some radical initiatives.
Earlier in American history, nationalism and aggressive expansionism antagonized many in Latin America. More recently, Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy extended the open hand of the Good Neighbor Policy and helping hand of the Alliance for Progress. At the Summit of the Americas, President Obama has an opportunity to build on this tradition.
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin and author of ‘After the Cold War’ (NYU Press and Macmillan/Palgrave). He can be reached at acyr@carthage.edu