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Editorial Commentary
Pablo Bachelet :
Candidates' Latin America experts a clue to policy
A flurry of recent statements on Cuba aside, U.S. presidential
candidates have kept their plans for Latin America couched in sweeping
generalities.Sen. Barack Obama promises to return the United States to its role as
a historic leader in the hemisphere. Sen. Hillary Clinton has
criticized President Bush for focusing too much on trade and drug
trafficking.When it comes to specifics, enter the experts.
Both campaigns have lured scores of Latin American specialists,
including a mixture of old hands and new voices on the region.Sen. Hillary Clinton is relying on some of her husband's top Latin
American advisors, while Sen. Barack Obama has some more junior former
Clinton officials plus some new names, hinting at a greater change
from the status quo.Sen. John McCain has skipped assembling a full-scale Latin American
group for now but his website lists a former Bush Senior
administration official and the three Miami Republicans in Congress.The choice of advisors provides possible clues to their future
policies on issues that range from free trade pacts to post-Castro's
Cuba and how to handle Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez --
though the teams have been mostly on standby mode."I gather nobody's done very much at all," said Peter Hakim, a
longtime Latin America observer with the Inter-American Dialogue, a
Washington think-tank.Democrats have typically targeted the Hispanic vote by appealing to
domestic issues. In a statement last month, Senate Democrats touted
minimum wage, housing and health issues as achievements that favored
the Hispanic community. There was no mention of Latin America
diplomacy.But even domestic issues like free trade jitters and immigration
reforms impact Latin America, though candidates usually have separate
teams of advisors on trade, migration or diplomatic relations with
Latin America.The Clinton and Obama scripts on Latin America are similar. Both
oppose ratifying a free trade agreement with Colombia for now and
support a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws that would
legalize millions of undocumented migrants. On Cuba, both favor easing
restrictions on family travel but condition most concessions on Havana
first enacting democratic reforms.In a document submitted to the online site of Univisión, Clinton
criticized President Bush for talking about social justice in Latin
America but in practice focusing on trade and drug trafficking.Unlike Clinton, Obama has said he would be open to a dialogue with
U.S. foes like Cuba.'Our Latin America policy cannot just be 'I oppose Castro' and 'I
oppose Chávez' and that's the end of it," he said at a campaign event
in Alexandria, Va., but he criticized Chávez for "despotic tendencies"
and for using oil revenues "to stir up trouble."Both Clinton and Obama work with Bill Clinton White House-era
advisors, many of whom favored NAFTA and helped craft a big aid
package for Colombia, often criticized by Democrats as too focused on
military aid.Clinton's Latin American team includes Arturo Valenzuela, a Georgetown
University professor and former senior director of the National
Security Council for the Western Hemisphere in the Clinton White
House. People familiar with his work say Valenzuela adheres to the
Democratic mainstream, like conditioning free trade deals to higher
labor standards. He was strongly critical of the Bush administration's
apparent acquiescence to a short-lived 2002 coup against Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez.Also listed: Thomas "Mack" McLarty, a former special envoy to the
region and a pro-NAFTA Democrat. Another centrist Democrat listed is
Peter Romero, former top State Department diplomat to the region.The team includes several career foreign service officers who served
as ambassadors in Latin America.There are also new names, like Dan Erikson, a young Cuba and Caribbean
specialist with the Inter-American Dialogue.The group is coordinated by Julia Sweig, a senior fellow at the
Council of Foreign Relations, who last year penned a paper suggesting
" an overhaul of U.S. policy may well relax the siege mentality that
keeps Cuba's own reforms muzzled -- and recast U.S.-Cuba relations in
a more normal light."Sweig's writings don't worry anti-Castro lobbyists.
"When the word Cuba comes up, . . . Clinton listens to two people:
[N.J. Senator] Bob Menendez and [Fla. Rep.] Debbie Wasserman Schultz."
says Mauricio Claver-Carone, of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political
Action Committee, which wants Congress to keep the sanctions in place.
Both Democratic lawmakers support a tough line on Havana.People inside and outside the campaigns say Obama's key Latin America
policy advisors also come from the Clinton administration ranks,
including Anthony Lake, Clinton's former National Security Advisor.
The director of the State Department's policy planning staff during
the Carter administration, Lake authored a book critical of U.S.
actions in Central America, Somoza Falling.The Latin America team is coordinated by Dan Restrepo, a House
International Relations Committee staffer in the 1990s. Restrepo has
criticized the Bush administration's enforcement-focused counter-drug
trafficking policy in Colombia.The team includes Frank Sánchez, a former chief of staff for the White
House envoy to the Western Hemisphere and Robert Gelbard, a former
ambassador to Bolivia and former head of the State Department's
counter-drug bureau.Also on board: Russell Crandall, a political science professor at
Davidson College who specializes on drug trafficking issues, and
Riordan Roett, a long-time Latin American watcher with Johns Hopkins
University's School of Advanced International Studies.Another advisor is Vicki Huddleston, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana
from 1999-2002 and now a sharp critic of U.S. policy toward Cuba."We write papers, we discuss issues and we will probably really jump
into high gear if and when Obama gets the nomination," said Roett.McCain, who favors free trade and tried to get an immigration reform
bill passed, has a large foreign policy team that includes former
Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Henry Kissinger.A key Latin America staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
who is informally advising the Arizona senator's campaign on Hispanic,
black and Latin American issues is Carl Meacham, whose father is
African-American and mother is Chilean.McCain's website only lists one Latin-America specialist: Bernard
Aronson, a Democrat and a former assistant secretary of state for
inter-American affairs in the Bush senior administration. He is now a
managing partner of private equity investment company ACON
Investments.Aronson in 1998 co-chaired with William D. Rogers a task force that
looked at Cuba policy. Its conclusions prompted more people-to-people
contacts with Cuba, which would be later overturned by Bush.But people familiar with the campaign say Republican Miami Reps.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz Balart -- all tough
critics of Castro's Cuba - are the key McCain advisors on Cuba.
Pablo Bachelet is Latin America correspondent for The Miami Herald. (pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com) Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
Editor's Note: This commentary was originally published by The Miami Herald, on 02/232/2007. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.
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Petroleumworld News 02/26/08
Copyright© 2008 Pablo Bachelet. All rights reserved.
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