One of the first powerful moves by the young nation was taken by President Monroe, who boldly proclaimed that his militarily small Republic had all of Latin America in its influence. Many laughed, but it held true for nearly two hundred years. Unfortunately due to our current President, that influence did not reach its bicentennial anniversary.
From Bloomberg:
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathering in Brazil tomorrow will mark a historic occasion: a region-wide summit that excludes the United States.
Almost two centuries after President James Monroe declared Latin America a U.S. sphere of influence, the region is breaking away. From socialist-leaning Venezuela to market-friendly Brazil, governments are expanding military, economic and diplomatic ties with potential U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran.
Not only is anti-American sentiment on the rise, it is reaching levels that actually reduce the power of the United States in South America as a whole. This summit is just one example among many, thanks in part to a callousness of the Bush Administration to the diverse and increasingly powerful continent.
Bolivian President Evo Morales last month expelled the Drug Enforcement Administration, alleging that DEA agents were conspiring to overthrow him; U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed the charges as absurd and suspended trade privileges for the Andean nation.
In Ecuador, meanwhile, President Rafael Correa has refused to renew the lease on the U.S.’s only military outpost in South America, a critical platform for the U.S. war on drugs.
For Brazil, tomorrow’s summit caps a decade-long diplomatic drive to use its growing economic and political stability to play a bigger role in the world.
While little concrete action is expected from the first-ever Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development, the fact that the U.S. wasn’t invited has symbolic importance, says Lampreia.
It is very important that the U.S. isn't being represented there. The Bush Administration claims that they simply did not want to go but merely talk to some of the players at the conference beforehand. While they may not have asked to be invited, being snubbed if they did would have looked far worse. Bush has wrought so much damage to our global influence, from Europe and the Middle East to our original power base of the Western Hemisphere.
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