Official White House Photo/Pete Souza
President Barack Obama waves to the people gathered on the street outside the Cidade de Deus (City of God) favela Community Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, March 20, 2011.
When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, Latin Americans’ hopes and expectations of their neighbor to the North were once again bolstered. According to Latinobarómetro, the arrival of President Obama in office had a clear positive impact — an increase of 24 percentage points — in the perception that the U.S. treats Latin America with respect. Before President Obama, the U.S. image in the region had been significantly tarnished by the Iraq war and the previous administration.
Brazil, Chile and El Salvador all have favorable opinions of the U.S., despite their different political systems and varying positions as liberal or conservative nations. Like several other Latin American countries, they all share stories of U.S. intervention in their local politics as part of their not-so-distant history.
The three countries were carefully chosen for President Obama to visit this week. Brazil, with its recently elected president, is an emerging super power whose international clout and growing importance in the international community can’t be ignored. Chile’s reputation as one of the region’s most economically and politically stable democracies was an easy, non-controversial stop not to be missed. And little El Salvador, which has one-fourth of its population living in the United States, exemplifies the problems of an entire region: Central America, whose proximity to the U.S. makes it much more vulnerable to Washington policies.
There is broad disagreement and mixed reviews among Latin American analysts as to the overall success of the trip. Those who see the glass half-empty — or almost empty — criticize President Obama’s visit for the lack of substance, for not delivering anything other than rhetoric. Yes, there was plenty of praise for democratic governance and economic stability, but what about the region’s deeper problems like poverty and crime? What about farm subsidies in the U.S. that affect countries from prosperous Brazil to poor Nicaragua? What about walking the walk of free trade and opening markets as engines for growth? What about immigration reform? What about addressing the U.S.’s insatiable demand for drugs that the region keeps in constant supply?
On the other hand, those who see the glass half-full praise President Obama for not canceling his trip given the international crises in Japan and Libya. They focus on the U.S. commitment of $200 million dollars to supplement the Merida Initiative’s aid to fighting organized crime in Central America. With 60 percent of Colombian cocaine finding its way to the U.S. market through Central America, that small, yet significant, part of the region received a special token.
For decades, we Latin Americans have complained of the U.S. patronizing and of not being treated as equals. We’ve had few U.S. administrations emphasizing partnership and co-responsibility. Here is a U.S. president who visited the region as a partner, without handing us charity or thinking he knows better how to solve our own problems.
“Veni, vidi y vámonos!” (I came, I saw and let’s go!) The U.S. president’s visit is over. As partners, the U.S. needs to sort out its own part of shared problems, like the war on drugs and immigration, just as we Latin Americans need to sort out our own.
Erika de la Garza is the program director of the Latin American Initiative at the Baker Institute. Her chief areas of interest include U.S.-Latin American relations; emerging leadership; coalition building between public, private and civil society actors; and trade and business development in Latin America.