What use would a Community of Latin American and Caribbean States be

El Tiempo, Colombia

What Good is Latin America's New U.S.-Free 'Community'?

 

"The new community will eventually have the academic utility of finally demonstrating that contrary to all of the outdated and anti-imperialist speeches, the U.S. isn't to blame for everything bad that happens in the region."

 

By Sandra Borda Guzmán*

 

Translated By Liz Essary

 

March 1, 2010

 

Colombia - El Mundo - Original Article (Spanish)

There are many reasons states decide to create international organizations. They do so to overcome collective action problems and obtain mutual benefits, ensure their own influence over a group of countries (like the U.S. did when it created the Organization of American States), create forums for discussion and exchange and to reach agreements, or to institutionalize their desire to counterbalance the influence of a hedgemon. The latter seems to be the reason behind the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

 

The message of Latin Americans to Washington by way of the new organization couldn't be clearer: The region has no intention of remaining the U.S.' backyard, and it recognizes the slow but unmistakable decline of the hegemonic power of the United States. Cuba is in and Honduras is out. It would seem that Latin America is set on balancing and counteracting U.S. power in the region.

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Although this political maneuver is legitimate and partially meets the nationalist and anti-imperialist demands of several countries in the region, the question is: why create this new organization? The decision to gain "independence" from U.S. influence is valid, but can this be achieved by creating an international organization that excludes the country? Through what mechanisms? Isn’t it rather a symbolic measure, with little substance in terms of action that would facilitate such an effort by increasing the region's autonomy?

 

The other argument is that the OAS is no longer good for anything and that we need a multilateral forum to facilitate the resolution of many of the challenges confronting the region. This implies that just because the U.S. isn’t present, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States would work. The problem is that there's little evidence to back up the assertion, that historically, Latin America hasn’t been able to act collectively solely and exclusively because of Washington.  

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SEE ALSO ON THIS:  

Estadao, Brazil: In Latin America, Rhetoric Triumphs Over Reality  

La Razon, Bolivia: Latin America Has Excluded the U.S. … So What Now?

ABC, Spain: Hugo Chavez Calls Terrorism Indictment a U.S.-Spanish Plot  

Folha, Brazil: Latin American Unity Cannot Be Dependent on Excluding the U.S.  

La Jornada, Mexico: Latin America's March Toward 'Autonomy from Imperial Center'

La Jornada, Mexico: Militarization of Latin America: Obama 'Ahead of Bush'

O Globo, Brazil: U.S. Navy Shows That What U.S. Can Do, Brazil Can Also Do  

Clarin, Argentina: Resurrected U.S. Fourth Fleet Creates Suspicion Across South America

Le Figaro, France: U.S. Navy 'Resurrects' Fourth Fleet to Patrol Latin America

Semana, Colombia: Hugo Chávez Isn't 'Paranoid' to Fear the U.S. Marines

 

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On the other hand, and as we began to see thanks to the embarrassing spat between the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela, it seems that it would be advisable to look more at the beam in one’s own eye than the speck in our neighbor's. If anything, the new community will eventually have the academic utility of finally demonstrating that contrary to all of the outdated and anti-imperialist speeches, the U.S. isn't to blame for everything bad that happens in the region.

 

Regrettably, however, at a time when we should be thinking of ways to come together, the region has opted for a confrontational and exclusionist formula.

 

Clearly, in the most parochial political sense, Latin American presidents have discovered how useful multilateral forums can be (with TV cameras on board). In that sense, no one needs yet another organization.

 

*Sandra Borda Guzmán is a professor and researcher in the Political Science Department at La Universidad de Los Andes.

 

CLICK HERE FOR PORTUGUESE VERSION

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US March 30, 6:29pm]

 







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