Latin America is changing. Across the region, right-wing governments that have been firmly established for almost two decades have been replaced by socialist and social democratic governments over the past four years. Gustavo Petro, a former member of the armed group Movimiento 19 de Abril, was elected President of Colombia in June this year. Gabriel Boric, Chile's left-most president for nearly 50 years, won the December 2021 presidential election; A month earlier, left-wing politician Xiomara Castro won
in Honduras, 12 years after her husband Manuel Zelaya was removed from the post of president in a military coup. In Peru, Pedro Castillo, a teacher and trade union leader, won the presidency in June 2021, and in Bolivia, Luis Arce of the Movimiento al Socialismo party was elected president in 2020.
In 2019, Alberto Fernández, backed by a coalition of left-leaning parties, defeated current right-leaning President Mauricio Macri in Argentina. A year earlier, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had won a landslide victory in the general elections in Mexico. Perhaps the most important change will come on October 30, when leftist Labor Party (PT) leader Lula da Silva hopes to win the second round of Brazil's elections. In the first ballot, Lula won 48 percent of
votes, followed by incumbent right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro with 43 percent. For some observers, this new wave is the continuation of the "pink tide" of left-wing governments that came to power in the 1990s.
Left leaders at the time condemned neoliberal policies and the resulting inequalities and social exclusion, political corruption and foreign dominance over economies. of export goods hampered their ability to resolve deep-seated injustices. Left-wing governments have returned now because the right-wing governments they replaced, largely US-backed, failed to see the tide of popular frustration. Generation of regional political leaders reject the traditional US role in the region, but also have other interests. It is more focused on gender and environmental issues, less interested in a continental identity, passionate about social justice issues and increasingly concerned about public health in a post-Covid era.
He is not afraid of being seen as a champion of left-wing ideals; rather, he seeks to channel his voters' frustration into new forms of government. It is also learning to live with foreign investments, but increasingly from China and not from the US, such as Boric from Chile. He has tried to maintain good relations with Cuba and Venezuela, but has also condemned human rights abuses in both countries. Protection of the rights of indigenous people.He also introduced a feminist policy and filled 14 out of 24 ministerial posts with women.
In Mexico, too, AMLO, the first left-wing president in three decades, has pursued dissenting policies. He maintained good relations with Venezuela and Cuba, called for an end to the trade embargo on Havana, but also maintained close ties with the US, pushed for radical change in Mexico, fought corruption, condemned human rights abuses, and reduced inequality and protections for workers' rights. Latin America is clearly changing, but Washington seems oblivious to the scope of that change. In 2019, National Security Advisor to the President of the United States Donald Trump, John Bolton, declared the return of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, according to which the United States claimed Latin America as its own backyard and warned all foreign powers to stay away.
However, he had clearly misunderstood the rejection of his ideas across the continent. After Joe Biden took office in Washington, US policy toward the region continued to be misguided. The Summit of the Americas, held in Los Angeles in June 2022, deliberately excluded what Bolton had called the “troika of tyranny”: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. This triggered waves of criticism. Several Latin American leaders, led by the Mexican President, declined to attend, while others took the opportunity to condemn US policy in the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent trip to South America was a damage control exercise and partially successful in demonstrating Washington's awareness of the region's clear left leanings. He visited Colombia, Chile and Peru, where US business interests are losing out to Chinese competition. He also attended the 52nd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Lima, where debates revealed disenchantment with US policy. During the trial, 19 out of
35 member countries voted to remove the OAS envoy from the US-backed Venezuelan opposition; they were only missing five votes to implement this. Despite the pledge to provide $240 million in humanitarian assistance to refugees in the region, the US role in the OAS is clearly diminishing.
Washington pays more than 50 percent of the organization's annual budget, but still has much to learn about new directions in the region. Washington has for too long backed the wrong actors in the region: authoritarian military leaders and wealthy businessmen, many of whom were educated or educated in the US. For too long, US governments have failed to understand that civil society is demanding change in Latin America, which it is has spelled the departure of US favorites They have condemned human rights abuses and corruption in some countries and ignored problems in countries led by US allies They have ignored rising poverty, elite enrichment and violent repression of protests injustice.
This has to change. Essentially, Washington must recognize the true aspirations of Latin Americans and stop playing favorites and showing selective outrage.
Latin America is open to dialogue with the US, but it must be a respectful exchange of views, not a top-down conference. It is time to recalibrate dominant perceptions of the region towards politics of pragmatism and constructive engagement. Concrete goals can and should be set. For example, support for the Petro government's peace talks with the armed group National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia must be clearly demonstrated. Relations with Cuba, a small country with great political clout in the region.
The US government can also reach out to newly elected left-wing leaders in the region to help them find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Venezuela. Washington also needs to focus on the region's two leaders, Mexico and Brazil. The litmus test of US interests will soon come with the second ballot in Brazil, and Washington must make it clear that it will not accept military involvement if Bolsonaro, the self-proclaimed "trump card of the tropics," loses. Indeed, it is time for USA
to acknowledge that Latin America is changing, and the left-wing activism of the 2020s represents a clear rejection of the politics of the past few decades. Only in this way can it have a significant relationship with the region and continue to be a relevant player in it.
This article originally appeared on Al Jazeera and Fetch With Intels News Feed Content Fetcher
Comments
0 comment