home > by publication type > daily analysis > U.S. Challenges in South America
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
Michelle Bachelet, Chile's new president. (Photo: AP)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes leave this week to attend the March 12 inauguration of Chile's socialist president-elect, Michelle Bachelet, the country's first woman president (CSMonitor). In Chile, Rice will meet with a number of Latin American leaders (Reuters), including Bolivia's newly elected president, Evo Morales. The Bolivian leader boasts of his close ties with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and communist Cuba and describes himself as a "nightmare" for Washington. Hughes will continue on to Brazil, Colombia, Panama, and El Salvador.
The trip comes at a time when U.S.-South American relations have hit new lows, experts say. Anti-American rhetoric abounds (WashPost) , support for democratic rule is lower than it was ten years ago (Economist), and U.S. policies remain hugely unpopular (Zogby). Further underscoring the discontent, a new World Bank report says one-quarter of all Latin Americans suffer from the highest measures of inequality in the world. In Chile, Rice and Hughes will also have to contend with the memory of U.S. policies throughout South America that supported brutal regimes like the Washington-backed military junta that tortured and exiled Bachelet in her youth, writes the Chicago Tribune.
After largely ignoring South America since 9/11, the costs of years of estrangement between the United States and South America could "be high for both sides," Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, writes in Foreign Affairs. Added to these are the twelve South American elections scheduled for 2006, outlined by the BBC, which are expected to shift politics to the left across a region on which the United States depends for a large share of its energy imports, as Sidney Weintraub of the Center for Strategic and International Studies notes. Newly elected leaders like Bolivia's Evo Morales and longtime Washington foes like Hugo Chavez are ready and able to capitalize on South America's frustration with the United States, experts say. The next major vote will be in Peru April 9. The elections, discussed in this CFR Background Q&A, could be a major litmus test for regional politics.
But CFR Fellow Julia Sweig, in an interview with cfr.org, says there is hope yet for U.S.-South American relations. The South American elections, she says, "are not a rejection of the market," but instead, "they're a statement that the existing institutions and the traditional elites cannot deliver." In a State Department press briefing this week, Rice said "the United States has no trouble, no difficulty, dealing with countries from either side of the political spectrum," citing Chile and Brazil as left-of-center governments that have good ties with Washington. The Center for American Progress offers a summary of a meeting on the challenges to democratic governance in Latin America and the UN Development Program reports on democracy in Latin America.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.