Benito Juarez’s Advice to U.S. Still Holds True
Raymond Rodríguez

President Woodrow Wilson once vowed to teach Mexico and Latin America to elect good leaders.

This month at the Organization of American States meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., President George Bush tried to persuade Latin American countries to foster the growth of democracy via trade and by electing democratic leaders.

Perhaps someone should remind Bush of Benito Juarez’s admonition::

“¡El respeto al derecho ajeno, hace la paz!”

Respect for the rights of others makes for peace.

Latin Americans have long memories and they vividly recall the endless trail of U.S. interventions in their internal affairs.

They are also aware that the United States has supported virtually every dictator in Latin America, ranging from Porfirio Díaz in Mexico to Fulgencio Batista of Cuba. So long as they cooperated with the United States and gave special privileges to our business firms, they could run amok.

The era of exploitation did not begin to change until the advent of the Good Neighbor Policy. Aware of the deteriorating situation in Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought the cooperation of Latin America by mutually beneficial means.

Eventually, his policy led to the creation of the Organization of American States. The OAS has attempted to assure respect and cooperation among the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

President Bush is now attempting to subvert the OAS into a monitoring agency to rate how effectively Latin American nations are implementing democracy. Unable to solve problems at home, the Bush Administration has made promoting democracy around the world a priority..

Although that is a worthy endeavor, many Latin American countries oppose using the OAS as a means to bring pressure to bear on rogue nations like Cuba and Venezuela.

The Bush Administration views both nations and their leaders, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, as renegades who must be forced to conform to U.S. demands and interests.

OAS members do not want to become involved in a dispute between the United States and their sister countries. They do not believe it would be proper for them to interfere in another nation’s internal affairs. Neither do they want to be seen as doing the bidding of the Bush Administration.

Their resistance is fueled by a feeling of resentment in Latin America that the United States has not been concerned or supportive in resolving the problems facing the region. They believe too much U.S. attention has been focused on the Middle and the Far East. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently made a whirlwind tour of the area in a vain attempt to allay such fears and assure them of U.S. interest in their well-being.

Despite the visit, the perception persists that the United States still does not view or treat the countries in the region as equals. Therefore, there is a quiet satisfaction in seeing President Chávez of Venezuela defying the United States and accusing President Bush of being an imperialistic bully. Also some Latin American countries depend upon subsidized oil from Venezuela and they do not want to openly criticize Chávez.

Latin American governments still smart over the disadvantage they have in dealing with their powerful neighbor. As an example, even though the United States claims to oppose terrorism, it has refused to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a terrorist who escaped from a prison in Venezuela. He was being detained for bombing a Cuban airliner. A Cuban national, he entered the United States. illegally and is seeking asylum.

Another example of U.S. disregard for Latin American sovereignty is the situation in Colombia. The U.S. has refused to allow local courts to try U.S. soldiers accused of committing crimes on Colombian soil.

However, 200 Colombians have been extradited to stand trial in the United States. In one drug-trafficking case the soldier received a sentence of five months, but his Colombian associate received a prison term of eight years.

The 34 OAS ambassadors were aware of these and similar incidents.

Therefore, despite a plea by President Bush for aggressive action, the group decided to proceed with caution regarding evaluating their neighbors' democratic progress. Their position is influenced by the fact that many Latin American countries have governments with leftist sympathies.

Many OAS members expressed greater concern with the proliferation of gangs throughout the Western Hemisphere. There are, by some estimates, more than 30,000 operational gangs with a combined membership exceeding 800,000 in the hemisphere. While that issue received minimal attention in the U.S. press, the murderous gangs are viewed as a major problem that can no longer be ignored.

(Raymond Rodríguez, of Long Beach, Calif., is a retired university professor and contribution columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. He may be reached by e-mail at rayrodriguez@earthlink.com.)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
06/19/05
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