Goodbye Monroe, Hello Troilo

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/227447/goodbye-monroe-hello-troilo/

When all is said and done, the U.S. brings both order and disorder to the Americas.

Goodbye Monroe, Hello Troilo
El País, Spain
By Juan Gabriel Tokatlian
Translated By Jenny Westwell
29 November 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

~snip~

Perhaps naively, some Latin American observers detect a new isolationist policy in Kerry’s announcement. Others, with scant empirical evidence, perceive Kerry’s gesture to mean that the United States has “left” Latin America. Both readings point to a single outcome: Goodbye, Monroe and goodbye, United States.

It might be more accurate to acknowledge that the end of the Monroe doctrine indicates neither "withdrawing" nor "forgetting" on the part of the United States. It might even be useful to speak of the “Troilo doctrine” as a symbolic substitute in inter-American affairs. Aníbal Troilo was one of Argentina’s greatest bandoneon players, not a Latin American politician. “Nocturno a mi barrio” ("Nocturne to my Neighborhood&quot was an outstanding composition; not only did he write it in 1968, but it was the only one he played in 1972.* The lyrics are fitting. In this melancholy tango, Troilo sings, “Somebody once said that I left my barrio. When? But when? Why, I am forever coming back.” The lyrics could be a metaphor for the fact that, in spite of appearances and some high-sounding interpretations coming out of Latin America itself, recent evidence shows the United States has never “left” the region: Hello, Troilo.

It is true that the Free Trade Area of the Americas went up in smoke at the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata. But the United States had already signed and ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, as well as bilateral trade agreements with Chile, Colombia, Peru and Panama. Mercosur has failed to establish an even half-consistent posture with respect to Latin America’s Atlantic coast, nor can it reach consensus on the Pacific side. Meanwhile, the Pacific Alliance of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico is looking to its own interests and aligning itself with the U.S. in the so-called pivot strategy. With this strategy, the United States seeks to affirm its power projection in Asia, using regional allies to surround Beijing and limit China’s influence in the Pacific Basin. Equally, and despite the advances made by China in Latin America, the United States is still the main investor in Mexico and the Caribbean, according to the last report issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Moreover, in spite of the United States’ own persistent economic recession, the same source states, “In 2012, U.S. multinationals were responsible for 24 percent” of foreign direct investment in Latin America, which represented “a higher percentage than in the preceding five years.”

As for strategies to combat drug trafficking, on the margins of which the so-called “war on drugs” is repeatedly called into question, Washington has carried out the Colombia Plan, the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, the Mérida Initiative, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative and the Central America Regional Security Initiative. The creation of the South American Defense Council in 2009 was certainly an historic step, but the U.S. Fourth Fleet, disbanded in 1950, had already been resurrected before that, in 2008. The Fourth Fleet’s main mission today is to combat organized international crime. It is true that the infamous School of the Americas, which was responsible for the training of so many Latin American dictators, closed in December 2000. But a total of 195,807 Latin American insurrectionists received training in the United States between 1999 and 2011, according to the website Just the Facts (www.jusf.org), more than in any earlier decade when inter-military contact was more substantial. In addition, the United States has consolidated military bases in Central America and the Caribbean, and scaled up military facilities with radar deployment and increased anti-drug operations in the area Washington considers its “backyard.”



unhappycamper comment: One 'minor' correction:

"School of the Americas, which was responsible for the training of so many Latin American dictators, closed in December 2000"

Not quite - the School of the Americas was RENAMED, not closed --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation