The Summit of the Americas: Obama's Open-Hand Approach to Diplomacy

This weekend leaders from across the Americas have made their way to Trinidad and Tobago for the fifth meeting of the Summit of the Americas to discuss the future relations between nations in North and South America, the Caribbean and between others interest groups in the region. The Summit is often the centerpiece for inter-governmental discussions and policy formations between nations in the region. The last few Summits have been dominated by the formation of multilateral and bilateral trade discussions, albeit with slowly dwindling support for the FTAA since the Quebec City Summit in 2001, the Summit of the Americas has moved away from discussions of a multilateral agreements into the shiny and new 2009 Summit which seeks to patch up open ended policy debates in the region, address security issues and produce some form of future dialogue between the US and states which formally have had rough relations with the Americans in the past. The best evidence of this new Summit approach is the move by the Obama administration to open a dialogue with Fidel and Raul Castro which has been reciprocated this week, make open discussions of how the US and Mexico can claim their part in the drug war, create and new open-hand diplomacy towards Venezuela and Bolivia and have increased trade with traditional allies in the hemisphere. Below I will discuss the possibility of some future developments between the US, its neighbours in the hemisphere and relations between other members and internal struggles within some countries in the Americas.

This week saw an attempt on the life of Bolivian President Evo Morales. I was able to see a live discussion with President Morales via webfeed on the Summit Website earlier on Saturday which was quite impressive and needed to be noted. Bolivia has gone through a great deal of policy changes with Morales. As one of the first indigenous leaders in Latin America, Morales has shifted much of his policy into poverty reduction strategies and through popular support, and adjustment in the power structure in his country. With a recent protest to withhold eating until anti-poverty measures and land reform issues were passed through into policy by the Bolivian Parliament and a very recent attempt on his life, there is no doubt of his commitment to changing Bolivia. Support for Morales will likely remain due to his popularly with many poorer indigenous communities that give him a large support base politically. A possible opening of relations with Bolivia’s allies in Venezuela and Cuba with the United States may change the situation greatly. In most cases Morales will be there until he is unable to satisfy the popular elements in society or so greatly alienates what he refers to as the oligarchs in society that he is unable to withdraw from protests. Bolivia will likely follow the natural course of populists in the region, albeit hopefully without violence becoming an end result.

A possibly historic move by President Obama during the Summit might be a sign of thawing relations, as Barak Obama made his way to shake the hand of Hugo Chavez in an act of good will. While Chavez was criticized in US media recently for claiming that Obama needed to study up on Latin America, Obama’s active move towards open-hand diplomacy was met by a friendly response. Obama was even given a book about the history of Latin America by Chavez, but in maintaining his position Chavez handed Obama a book which some call an academic work which compiles a drastic account of state-to-state oppression by the US in Latin America. Despite slight posturing, an opening of a dialogue has already resulted in Venezuela re-instating its Ambassador to Washington and might result in some added passive economic ties between Venezuela and the US that builds on already existing trade in many markets between the two nations. The larger effect of Obama’s move to open dialogue further with Chavez likely comes from his very open and quick moves to re-initiate ties with Cuba. Although Cuba was ejected from the OAS in the early 1960s, thus did not have a formal representative at the Summit, Obama made it clear that a lifting of the travel restrictions on Cuba would be a priority as well as talks with Cuba’s leading family which were accepted by Castro before the Summit commenced. A discussion of this further by FPA’s Great Decisions program can be seen on a video titled The Latin American Left. Click here to see the video link.

Before the Summit, Obama went to Mexico to show his support for and claim some responsibility for the drug war now taking place in Mexico. Many in the US and Mexico believe that in order to conquer the drug cartels in Mexico itself, a concerted effort must be coordinated between the source of the narcotics in Mexico, and the source of weapons and main market for drugs in the US, and even the market in Canada where Canada’s Olympic city has been enveloped by a mini-drug war itself. In addition, Obama’s stop in Mexico City before the Summit brought Mexico into a similar light with the issues surrounding Cuba. The United States closest Latin American neighbors for the first time in two generations are finally being properly re-engaged, which sends a message to the rest of the region and creates a new energy for the Summit that shows the US as an open-hand to discussions in the region after many years of neglecting US-Latin American Relations. In his speeches, Obama sought to claim responsibility for US actions in the region in an attempt to clean old wounds between neighbours. He also stated that despite US actions in the region, it also must not become a scapegoat for all problems in the Americas. To see an article and video by the FPA writer Marco Vicenzino on Obama and Latin America, please click here.

The US policy towards Latin America has often been linked to free trade, and while the issues of trade and protectionism might not have been in the spotlight this weekend, America’s closest allies in the Americas have not forgotten the importance of this relationship. Economic powerhouses in the Americas such as Argentina and Brazil have been battling through the latest economic crisis but seek to open further trade ties with the US and other investors. China’s role in investment in Argentina and Brazil and other Latin American markets have started to rival those coming from the US, World Bank, IMF and IADB in levels of investment, albeit with more favorable lending conditions. Canada, the United States’ largest trading partner in the region sought to assist the US in opening relations with Cuba, to which Canada has always maintained, but hoped to keep the issue of trade protectionism in the focus of the Summit leaders as both developed and developing nations in the Americas would be greatly hurt if trade was sacrificed in the process of reinvigorating the economy in the Americas. A $4 billion cash infusion was also promised by Canada to the IADB during the Summit and moves towards a CARICOM-Canada FTA. An opening between the US and Cuba was seen as a positive for Canada as well, as support for trade between all three countries is seen as a benefit from US investment.

The greatest concern for many worried about trade protectionism in the melee of new policies and ideas at the Summit is what to do about trade and countries such as Colombia, who is the United States’ strongest ally in South America, but is being battered by interest groups in the US and opposition in Canada for the extension of Free Trade between the US, Canada and Colombia due to human rights abuses against labour leaders in Colombia. Opposition to a Colombian FTA is so great that it is doubtful that a minority government in Canada will be able to ratify it, and despite the US having strong trade ties with China and an opening with Cuba who also have numerous human rights violations, a Colombian FTA has been placed in a holding pattern of policy formation in the US Congress. Perspective must be taken into serious consideration, as the US often cannot justify trading with some partners, and penalizing others such as Cuba for human rights offences. Colombia is a success story against the drug war in the Americas, and opening a stronger economy between Colombia and North America, while pressuring for increased human rights in the process is the only way the United States and re-establishes itself in its own backyard. This statement justifying an opening of relations with Cuba cannot stop at Cuba and the US trade relationship with China.

At the end of the 5th Summit of the Americas, success will only come with a strong arm extending towards an open-hand of diplomacy in the Americas. Obama’s policy towards countries with human rights abuses must be measured and moral in its development of relations that benefit the US and the Americas as a whole.

Click here to see the Reuters Video of Chavez Meeting Obama

Click here to see the Reuters Video of Obama on New Ties with Cuba