The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2020

46 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL of the first the Summit of the Americas in 1994, all states in the Americas from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, with the exception of Cuba, were democracies. As Bolivia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs at the time, I was personally involved in the negotiations leading up to that summit. President Bill Clinton invited all democratic leaders of the Americas in a hemispheric ini- tiative aimed at rebuilding the inter-American system in a new scenario defined by the end of the Cold War. It was an exhilarating time, as 34 democratic heads of state and government discussed ways to commit ourselves to the collective defense of democracy and free-market economies. Our shared strategy in these negotiations was to build a new hemispheric architecture based on representative democracy, free markets and social development. The new regional agenda, unanimously approved by the presidents and prime ministers of the Americas, marked an exceptional moment for U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. role is not all good, however. A more problematic U.S. policy relating to Bolivia, in my experience, has to do with the so-called war on drugs. This policy was deeply flawed and even counterproductive, in my view. Besides failing to do what it was designed to do, the policy lacked a social component in alternative development, and therefore produced unintended negative political and economic consequences, as well. The popularity of Bolivia’s intensely anti-American President Evo Morales was rooted in his opposition to the faulty U.S. counter- narcotics policies. By conservative estimates, the policy has deprived Bolivia’s important informal economy of about half a billion dollars a year, or 5 percent of GDP, and has hit activity in sectors such as construction, financial services and small business particularly hard. Moreover, it did not succeed in achieving even its own narrow aims: today Bolivia grows more coca and exports more cocaine than ever. (By no coincidence, the former president was also president of the coca growers’ federation.) Friend or Foe? When I was Bolivia’s ambassador to the United States, a former American ambassador memorably told me, “In Washing- ton there are more diplomats than taxi drivers.” For the repre- sentative of a small country in a deeply asymmetric relationship with the United States, this fact makes it very difficult to find the space to promote your national interests in the American capital—especially when U.S. attention and interest are taken up by other regions of the world. When I started out, for example, the United States was in the midst of the war in Iraq, which absorbed all the energies of the gov- ernment. The profound upheaval happening in my own country just couldn’t compete. I met that reality with a combination of realism and resignation. But today I sometimes reflect that the Iraq War was a tragedy not only for the Middle East; it also poisoned and fragmented relations with Latin America. The promising idea of mutual respect and shared principles launched in 1994 with the Summit of the Americas was lost during that time, replaced by a combination of narrow policy concerns and growing disinterest that has served neither Bolivia nor the United States. I personally witnessed two incidents involving the former president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, that are tell- ing in this regard. When President-elect Sánchez de Lozada and President George W. Bush met in the White House in 2002, For the representative of a small country in a deeply asymmetric relationship with the United States, it is very difficult to find the space to promote your national interests in the American capital. The first Summit of the Americas in Cartagena in 1994 brought 34 heads of state together to discuss the defense of democracy and free-market economies. From left: the author, then Bolivia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs; former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Carter Center Senior Research Associate Jennifer McCoy. COURTESYOFJAIMEAPARICIO