Toward a New Policy
From United Fruit to Lockheed-Martin and McDonnell-Douglas, U.S. companies have helped shape—and have sometimes dictated—U.S. actions in Latin America and the Caribbean. U.S. domestic interests have historically played a preponderant role in U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, and its importance has only grown in the post-cold war environment. If U.S. policymakers were willing to stand up to narrow political and economic interests and to play a leadership role in unmasking the “threats” from abroad, they could reshape U.S. policy toward the hemisphere in fundamental ways. Washington must address the asymmetrical power relations between Latin American countries and the United States by integrating Latin American viewpoints into U.S. foreign policy, allowing countries to determine their own national development paths, and providing the resources, debt relief and the preferential trade and investment policies needed to overcome the vast differences in wealth and power between North and South.

Mexican family outside their home.	© Debra Preusch

Specific Recommendations
Three concrete steps could be taken to move in a new direction. First, the U.S. government should make poverty elimination the centerpiece of its policy toward Latin America and should redirect economic resources toward that end—even if that means cuts in the virtually untouchable defense budget. Second, Washington should recognize that it will never be able to solve the very real problems of illicit drug abuse and drug-related violence through military action overseas. Though the U.S. can and should provide resources both for judicial and police reform and for alternative development efforts in Latin America, illicit drug control efforts should prioritize treatment and education efforts in the United States. Likewise, Washington should resist the temptation to support militarized solutions to the very real problem of crime sweeping Latin America and should instead focus on the difficult task of promoting long-term institutional reform and the strengthening of civilian institutions, such as the judiciary. Such reform processes must be participatory to be successful, incorporating civil society and citizen involvement.

Finally, Washington should act more forcefully to promote democratization trends in Latin America by eliminating U.S. security assistance to military forces, strengthening the capacity of local elected civilian governments and citizens to define the role of those forces, and speaking out more aggressively to defend democracy when transgressions occur. A range of other initiatives should be adopted as well, including an end to the Cuban trade embargo, the initiation of a policy of constructive engagement toward Cuba, and at least a two-year moratorium on the sale of sophisticated weapons to Latin American governments.

In this post-cold war era, with democratically elected governments in place throughout most of the region, there is a historic opportunity to transform Latin America policy beyond mere calculations of opportunities and threats to an outlook of engaging the region's citizens and leaders in constructing a common vision of the hemisphere's promise—a promise of durable and inclusive democracy, respect for human rights, and sustainable and shared prosperity.

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