The United States and the Latin American Left
The United States and the Latin American Left
Posted By Matias Vernengo On May 7, 2013 @ 5:26 am
Matias Vernengo [1]
Economics is an essential part of foreign policy. One cannot think of the Cold War without the Marshall Plan that allowed reconstruction in Western Europe and containment of the Soviet Union in Western Europe. In Latin America one cannot dissociate the Cuban Revolution and the subsequent Alliance for Progress, which basically provided credit for allies in the region, pushed by Kennedy to contain Communism in the region. Geopolitics is, however, often ignored by economists, and political scientists tend to use only mainstream economics when discussing political economy issues.
In the case of US-Latin American affairs, the inability to understand the political elements of the economic process, and the incapacity to comprehend the deep causes of underdevelopment in the region explain, in part, the problematic relationship of the Obama administration with the left of center governments in the region. The Obama administration has compounded old mistakes and aggravated the mistrust from progressives in Latin America (for an early discussion of the topic go here [2]; subscription required). John Kerry, the Secretary of the State, has referred recently to Latin America as the American “backyard,” and the Obama administration has not recognized the democratically elected government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
On the Venezuelan election, as noted by Mark Weisbrot [3], not only the left of center governments recognized Maduro’s victory, but almost everybody. In Weisbrot’s words, the “Obama administration was completely isolated in the world.” These political actions go hand in hand with the perpetuation of economic policies pushing free trade in the region. The last free trade agreement, the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (for more go here [4]), was finalized recently.
It is the failure of these economic policies that have created the conditions for a political change in Latin America. The left of center governments came to power after the glaring failure of the Washington Consensus policies in the 1990s. While it is true that the fast growth since 2003 was possible, to some extent, as a result of the favorable terms of trade, and the higher prices of commodities, it is also true that the governments of the region, particularly those controlled by left or progressive administrations, were able to either take direct control of or increase taxes on natural resources, and increase social transfers and spending on welfare.
More:
http://triplecrisis.com/the-united-states-and-the-latin-american-left/
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This inequality between America and the developing world is quite contrived. There's lots of good discussion about what the policies of the IMF and World Bank do to these developing countries like those in South America: http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20061215.htm
America has been very conscious to do these things since the end of WWII. Quoting George Kennan in a private meeting ( sometimes referred to as the "father of containment policy"
shortly after the war (in 1948), "We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. ... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. ... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. ... We should cease to talk about vague and ... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."
It explains the facts of US foreign policy significantly better than supposed rhetoric of supporting "fledgling democracies" and "anti-communism" (which is now replaced by "anti-terror"..)
And yeah, the inability to recognize the Venezuelan election by the United States was pretty retarded: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_65584.shtml
