America and its Southern Neighbors

I am confused about something, but of course that's nothing new. For my entire life, this Nation has concerned itself with Europe, the Mid-East and, to lesser degrees, Asia and Africa, We have, mostly, ignored our neighbors to the South. Why?

The only President I remember paying a lot of attention to the region is JFK, whose Alliance for Progress was a great idea that became lost in LBJ's Great Society and Viet Nam pushes. Oh sure, every now and then we give lip service to the area, mostly when a natural disaster occurs. Nixon did turn his attention to Chile but only to allow Kissinger to unseat and execute their properly elected President, Salvador Allende, a move that hardly won us friends. Clinton's NAFTA deal did nothing to help them or us. Our occasional mucking about in the affairs of Haiti has been disastrous for those poor folks. Mexico, who should be a dear friend, is only thought of when we get riled about illegal immigrants (they have been coming here to work farms as long as we have had farms) and when we want to pretend we are fighting a war on drugs.

Venezuela is a case in point. When heating oil was going through the roof, Hugo Chavez offered to sell cheap oil to the US. His efforts at good will were rebuffed and he was treated like an unwanted step child. Look at Cuba. Our sanctions have done great harm to the Cuban people. Forget Castro. Yes, he is a monster, but no worse than a bunch of other monsters we have supported. Remember, after we ousted Allende in Chile, we supported, avidly, Pinochet, a cruel creature who sent death squads through the streets slaughtering opponents, except for a select few who he had tortured to death.

But these, blessedly, are exceptions. Most of the time we pretty much ignore Latin America and we will regret that. Nations like Brazil and Argentina could be great allies and trading partners, as could Bolivia, Peru, and, now that I think about it, any country down there. Yet, we are so damned interested in the mid-East. I can't imagine why. It's not about oil. Mexico and Venezuela have huge oil reserves. Instead, China does a lot of business with Latin America, and not just oil. Several of those countries have large reserves of rare minerals, the kind that are used in almost every high tech industry. Yet, we seem to have no interest in cultivating relations with them.

If things go as usual, we will continue ignoring Latin America until we desperately need something from them, and that day will come. Then we will have to go either with hat in hand, begging, or we will try our frequent strategy, bullying. Those folks aren't dumb, they will remember and we will pay for our neglect

If I were a young person, entering college, I would study Spanish and Portuguese. I would learn everything I could about Latin America's history, culture and economics. I would study their climates and geography and natural resources. Because then, I believe, about the time the studies are finished, we will be looking more and more at Latin America, either as a very lucrative trading partner and ally or as a serious and perhaps even deadly rival. Either way, that knowledge would be indispensable and I would have a fine professional life ahead of me. But, you know, wouldn't it be nice if for once, we used a little foresight and entered into a new era of relations with our Southern Neighbors as friends.