What John McCain should know about Latin America

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Republican presidential candidate John McCain jets off to Colombia tonight, where he’ll stay for just a day before visiting Mexico. While he’ll no doubt devote most of his time to photo ops with presidents Uribe and Calderon, here are a few things Senator McCain (or any future U.S. president) ought to know about Latin America before he goes:

• No “radical socialist revolution” is sweeping the region. Aside from Venezuela’s Chávez, the aging Castro brothers, and to a lesser extent, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Latin American leaders are moderates (e.g. Lula in Brazil, Kirchner in Argentina, and Bachelet in Chile). These countries enjoy fairly good relations with El Norte, with which they have cooperated more closely on the trade and environmental fronts in recent years. Lula even signed an ethanol accord last year with George W. Bush, promising to boost research and production of biofuels.
• Since 9/11, President Bush has spent more time on security issues than on building Latin American goodwill. Talks on immigration reform with then-Mexican President Vicente Fox stalled and immigration enforcement got tougher. Latin American opposition to the Iraq invasion got pretty heated too — Mexico and Chile both voted against the invasion at the U.N. in 2003, to Bush’s displeasure. A transcript released last year revealed that Bush even threatened to stall a free trade agreement with Chile if the country voted against the United States. Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and El Salvador each had troops in Iraq at one point, but only El Salvador’s remain.
• The drug war remains a major flashpoint. From 2000 to 2006, the United States spent $5.5 billion on Plan Colombia to combat drug production in the Andes, but cocaine production rose 14 percent from 2002 to 2007. Aerial spraying, an integral part of Plan Colombia, often kills licit crops and destroys farmers’ livelihoods. And farmers in Bolivia have recently said they will stop accepting aid from USAID because the United States “undermines” leftist President Evo Morales. They plan to rely on Venezuela for help instead.
• Trade brings its own share of touchy points. NAFTA has met with mixed reviews for the less-than-expected boost it has given the Mexican economy. Many in Latin America fear that CAFTA will have a similar impact — Costa Rica just narrowly ratified the agreement, almost two years after the U.S. Congress passed it. In Colombia, 57 percent approve of the proposed bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, which awaits congressional approval. President Bush and Senator McCain both support it, but Human Rights Watch has warned against its passage, citing the hundreds of Colombian trade unionists that have allegedly been killed by paramilitaries in recent years. Leading Democrats, including Barack Obama, also oppose the agreement in its current form.