The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

Latin America offset the loss of the region’s most produc- tive workers and the “lost opportunities for economic and political reform that might have occurred if the United States did not provide a constant safety valve for millions of dissatisfied workers.” As the world region least affected by terrorism, Latin Americans did not get caught up in the issue the way Americans did after the 9/11 attacks. Initially, there was an outpouring of sympathy in the region for the United States. But 18 months later came the invasion of Iraq, an event that rekindled longstanding hemi- spheric concerns about American unilateralism. (According to a recent Zogby poll, an astonishing 86 percent of Latin Americans disapprove of Washington’s management of conflicts around the world.) Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda says the Iraq War has “contributed to a wide, deep and proba- bly lasting collapse of sympathy for the United States” in Latin America. Castañeda has urged Bush to appoint a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission, headed by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, to recommend ways to rebuild U.S.-Latin American relations. Phillip McLean, a former diplomat and a Latin America expert at the Center for Strategic and Inter- national Studies, concurs that Washington should be doing more for the region. He notes, “Latin Ameri- ca policy is always best when it ties into what’s on Latin America’s mind.” The Bush administration denies that it has neglected Latin America, pointing to its aggressive pursuit of bilat- eral and regional trade agreements. These include the Central America Free Trade Agreement, as well as accords with the Dominican Republic and four Andean countries. (A fifth nation, Chile, reached final agreement with the United States on its own bilateral free trade agreement in 2003.) Still, perhaps understandably, it is events to the east that command Washington’s attention these days, not the south. And that is a situation that may not change for some time. n F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 6