A Leadership Vacuum in Latin America
On December 2, leaders from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Caracas to establish a new regional forum known as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Their two-day summit produced a great deal of populist, anti-U.S. bluster, but very little diplomatic substance.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez promised that CELAC would eventually “leave behind the old and worn-out” Organization of American States (OAS), which was founded in 1948. Ecuador’s Rafael Correa argued that the OAS “should have come to an end” in 1982, when the United States supported Britain’s war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega declared that CELAC was “sentencing the Monroe Doctrine to death.” Bolivia’s Evo Morales condemned the International Monetary Fund (always a convenient villain), saying it had “pillaged us and led us to poverty.” And Cuba’s Raúl Castro blasted the recent NATO military campaign in Libya.
Unlike the Washington-based OAS, CELAC will not include the United States or Canada. Indeed, that’s the whole point: It is intended to weaken U.S. influence in the hemisphere and give Latin America’s populist autocrats a new venue for promoting 21st-century socialism. “While the CELAC is a regional effort, it’s Chávez’s baby,” explains Jim Wyss of the Miami Herald. “Originally scheduled for July, the formation of the CELAC was delayed as Chávez traveled to Cuba to undergo treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer.”
The Caracas summit provided yet more evidence that Latin America is suffering from a dangerous leadership vacuum. It came on the heels of egregious electoral fraud in Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega and his ruling Sandinista Party used a variety of autocratic methods to sway the outcome of national elections on November 6. Government authorities deliberately made it hard for voters to acquire their identification cards; they sought to limit the number of election observers and poll watchers; and the Supreme Electoral Council once again operated with a disturbing lack of transparency.
Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo, who headed the European Union’s team of election observers, has affirmed that Ortega and the Sandinistas were victorious, but he has also questioned the size and nature of their victory, saying, “We don’t know what would have happened without all these tricks and ruses.” The disputed election results sparked a wave of protests and violence. Several Nicaraguans were killed, and many more were injured.
Such is the intensely polarized and volatile atmosphere that Ortega has fostered. By rigging elections, trampling the constitution, persecuting his political opponents, and bullying journalists, he has laid the foundation for another Sandinista dictatorship. Indeed, the only reason he was eligible to stand for reelection is that his judicial allies used legal thuggery to abolish presidential term limits. In the words of former U.S. ambassador Robert Callahan, “Daniel Ortega’s candidacy was illegal, illegitimate, and unconstitutional.”
With the economic meltdown in Europe, it should be increasingly obvious that Washington needs to place a renewed interest in Latin America and improving ties with countries like Brazil, Chile, and others that are improving their economies through free market reforms. It goes without saying we have ea security interest there, as well.
From Venezuela to Honduras, it is also obvious the kind of leadership we need will not come from the Obama White House.
“Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega declared that CELAC was “sentencing the Monroe Doctrine to death.”
No, Obama did that as soon as he took office. With the Russians and Iranians in Venezuela and the Chinese in Cuba, the Monroe Doctrine went down the toilet when Obama decided never to do anything about any of this. Why should South and Central American countries listen to what we have to say when we just assume that they will be pro-American? We are allowing too many countries to have much too much influence in these nations and it will only come back to haunt us. As soon as Iran gets some missiles armed with nuclear weapons, what’s to stop them from shipping those missiles to Venezuela? We could have yet another Cuban Missile Crisis with the Obama administration not lifting a finger to stop it. And if we lose that confrontation, either an American city goes up in smoke or we lose what is left of our influence in the region. That does not seem like a good outcome to me.
Prediction: CELAC will go the same way as MERCOSUL and EuroZone did. Period. Failure.
EuroZone: abject failure. It was socialism re-hashed.
MERCOSUL: abject failure. Another attempt at socialism in a variant form.
CELAC: A learderless, rudderless union of like-minded socialists and communists willing to give “socialism a chance.” (a play of words on Beatles song “give peace a chance.”). Destined to go by way of the Do-Do.
These Latin American nations DO HAVE A LEADER…FIDEL. He’s just like the bunch that came up with this coka-mammy idea in the first place…lead by Dilma Rouseff’s efforts (see, she’s an ardent marxist/communist).
Just like the EuroZone. If each nation can’t make it in the World Capitalist system alone, we’ll just all get together and impose socialism “en masse.” Just like the Euro Zone did, and failed as a bloc, too. Yaaahooo! Get ready for the ride.
BHO has been as clueless to the poisonous climate festering in Latin America as he has about the “Arab Spring”. Movements within nations across the world that have changed course under BHO’s watch, whether it’s Nicaragua or Egypt, have all been steered into spheres of influence that are inimical to the interests of the US and, ultimately, to themselves.
BHO has seen to it that the US is no longer the despised, stick weilding, my way or the highway that it was under George W. Bush. Under his nap at the switch of power, we have become a laughingstock unto the nations of the world, quiet when we should be speaking forcefully, as with Iran; distracted when we should be focused, as with Nicaragua; and unduly critical when we should hold out tongue, as with Israel.
My only source of information is the same media everyone else sees, and so cannot claim prescience, but what bothers me the most is that if Bill Clinton can have clothed sex in a coatroom, or whatever it was, off from the Oval Office…. and among other things be brought before an Impeachment Proceedure where he oozes evasion and retreats into a ramble about the definition of “Is”, and his law-trained wife can be questioned officially about her investment games…why, oh, why…. has this Obama character been permitted to continue this far with his unwitting destructive processes…domestic and in United States foreign policy, with a cohort the likes of his Atty General Holder…..when and at what point will we bring charges against Obama for High Crimes and Misdemeanors?
Is all of the B.S. simply a case of the Congress-pot calling the presidential-kettle black?….and an unspoken realization of this fact the thing keeping a caucus in Congress from bringing charges?
It’s high time this is brought to the surface….not wait until the nasty election on the horizon is finished….the Democrats election-desperation is going to test our tolerances.
when Obama decided never to do anything about any of this. Why should South and Central American countries listen to what we have to say when we just assume that
Chile is doing OK, corruption free.
wait a minute. You think anything good can come from the obama administration in South America. REALLY !
The best hope for all involved is obama and his clowns get the boot next election and reality and rule of law return to the USA.
As it is the obama administration has severely damaged the rule of law and elections look freer in South America.
In the end it can only be a good thing that obama hasn’t set his talents to work in South America.
No different than here.