Biden’s administration on Monday announced a week-long meeting with three of Latin America’s last leftist leaders in an effort to find pragmatic and unusual ground, rather than ideological confrontation, on a range of issues, including immigration, drug trafficking and China’s growing influence.
The first day a little daunting.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken initiated the project in Bogota, Colombia, meeting with President Gustavo Petro, who was forced into force just two months ago, before traveling to Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru. Blinken will also constitute the United States at a summit of the Organization of American States. Administration officials say they are confident they can have healthy relations with those countries, even as much of Latin America turns more to the left. This is despite the obvious embarrassment suffered when President Biden refused to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the Summit of the Americas in June, a prime occasion meant to showcase hemispheric cooperation. Several countries boycotted in protest.
The first leg of Blinken’s journey, Bogotá, was to be the ultimate difficulty.
Until Petro’s election, Colombia was governed for decades through one of the two main political parties, center-right or center-right establishments that were considered America’s most productive friends in Latin America. The Colombian and U. S. governments have cooperated fully in militarized eradication of extensive coca crops, extradition of drug traffickers, and combating guerrillas who have challenged the prestige quo in a 50-year civil war.
Petro, however, was once one of those guerrillas, and has already questioned many unusual policies. He called the U. S. -led war on drugs a failure and demanded a new technique that will end the forced eradication of illicit crops and may come with the legalization of some drugs.
Some U. S. officials privately fear that cocaine production and export, which U. S. multibillion-dollar efforts have eliminated, could explode if Petro adjusts its drug policy too drastically.
At a joint news conference Monday at Casa Nariño, the official presidential apartment in the green Andean capital, Blinken sought to downplay the differences. progress while addressing the “root causes” fueling demand. He said the U. S. governments are not in the process of doing so. The U. S. and Colombia were “synchronized. “
Still, Petro gave the impression of standing firm, saying that the extradition of Colombians to the U. S. should be reconsidered. U. S. while criticizing the U. S. for excluding Cuba.
Petro also broke with the United States by renewing ties with Venezuela’s questionable socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro, and suggesting that sending more weapons to Ukraine was a mistake.
“Each country wants to bring its own technique to those challenges,” a senior State Department official said when asked about Petro’s rapprochement with Maduro.
Later this week, Blinken will meet in the Chilean capital with President Gabriel Boric, a former activist and one of the world’s youngest leaders, and in Lima with President Pedro Castillo, a former schoolteacher and leftist who is mired in corruption allegations.
Blinken said he believed the leftward trend in recent Latin American elections reflected others seeking governments that delivered, rather than a profound ideological shift.
“We don’t judge countries by their position on the political spectrum, but by their commitment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights,” Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said before the trip.
He noted that Colombia, Chile and Peru have long been vital trading partners of Washington, and all have uninterrupted, if turbulent, recent histories as democracies.
“Last year we celebrated two hundred years of bilateral relations with Colombia,” Nichols said. “And this year we will do it with Chile and Peru. “
Blinken’s excursion began the day after Brazilians voted for president in a contest between outgoing far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a veteran leftist. He obtained no more than 50% of the vote.
Perhaps more than ideology, the biggest challenge in Latin America for Biden’s management may be China. President Xi Jinping has spent billions of dollars in the region on infrastructure, loans and other projects in such a successful attempt to expand China’s influence and an attempt to eclipse the classic American presence.
Immigration will also be a major topic in the visit of Blinken’s three capitals. He praised Colombia for hosting thousands of Venezuelans fleeing hardship in their country, though Petro’s renewed relations with Caracas would likely sign a resolution to inspire Venezuelans to return home. towns
“There are more people displaced from their homes across the globe than at any time in recorded history,” Blinken said.
Get therapy
Life is stressful. Our weekly wellness newsletter can help.
You may get promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Follow
Tracy Wilkinson covers the Los Angeles Times office in Washington, D. C.
Subscribe to access
Follow