Latin America
Return to Common Sense
February 28, 2018
Section: Foreign – Latin
America
“Our southern neighbors are evolving politically and sharing
in our economic prosperity with Free Trade Agreements can help tip them toward
a free market economy and democracy.”
“The U.S. would welcome any initiative to control this leftist
leadership. If you look out over South America, the only country that is a
staunch supporter is Colombia. The rest are lukewarm to say the least." David
Fleischer.
Philosophy
(Background, Issues, Objectives):
Latin America is divided into 20
independent countries and several dependent territories.
- Latin America is the region of the Americas where Romance
languages are officially or primarily spoken.
- Most Latin
American countries predominately use Spanish as their official language.
- Brazil is by far
the largest country of Latin America, both in area and population, but
speaks Portugese.
- The primary
religion throughout Latin America is Roman Catholicism.
- The rich mosaic
of culture is derived from combination of Native, European, and African
cultures.
Organization
of American States (OAS) is composed of 35 independent states of the Americas.
- Charter of the Organization of the American
States is a Pan-American treaty signed in 1948.
- OAS goal is "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their
solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their
sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence."
- OAS has eight essential purposes:
o
To
strengthen the peace and security of the continent.
o
To
promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the
principle of nonintervention.
o
To
prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of
disputes that may arise among the member states.
o
To
provide for common action on the part of those states in the event of
aggression.
o
To
seek the solution of political, judicial, and economic problems that may arise
among them
o
To
promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development.
o
To
eradicate extreme poverty, which constitutes an obstacle to
the full democratic development of the peoples of the hemisphere.
o
To
achieve an effective limitation of conventional weapons that will make it
possible to devote the largest amount of resources to the economic and social
development of the member states.
Latin America is important to the U.S.
economically and politically.
- In 2001, the
region’s governments adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter,
committing themselves to the promotion and defense of representative
democracy.
- In 2004 total
merchandise trade between U.S. and Latin America was $409 billion, about
17% of total.
- Free Trade
Agreements lower the cost of commerce and open door to opportunity.
- Free Trade
Agreements have been made with Canada, Mexico, Chile, Dominican Republic,
and four Central American states.
- Free Trade talks
are underway with Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
- Since 2004 U.S.
Chile Free Trade Agreement total U.S. exports increased by 24%.
- 57% of people expressed
confidence in the private sector in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Mexico, Peru and Venuzuela.
Brazil has become am emerging world
power in the last few decades.
·
Brazil
has demonstrated how a multiethnic democracy and free market economy can help
millions pull themselves out of poverty.
·
President
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, labor leader turned statesman, has been defined
largely by steady pragmatism.
·
Lula
has demonstrated that antipoverty programs are good business and that economic
growth is objectively better when the opportunity that comes with it is shared
more equitably.
Chile is the best performing country in the Andes.
- Exceptional openness to international trade
and investment contributes to high trade freedom
- Prudent governance translates into a high
score on government spending.
- Two institutional essentials enable
economic development and prosperity:
o
Regard
for the rule of law.
o
Protection
of property rights.
With a combined population of only 10 million, Uruguay and
Paraguay have quietly been growing at very fast rates, improving their economic
stability, and boosting their credit ratings.
- In 2010, Uruguay’s
economy expanded by 8.5%, and it received 29% more foreign direct
investment (FDI) in 2010 than in 2009.
- In 2010, Paraguay posted the second-fastest
economic growth rate (15%) in the entire world, thanks to a record soybean
crop and exports increased by 43%, with soybean exports jumping by a
remarkable 102% and meat exports growing by 59%.
- Paraguay is attracting companies from other
countries due to its business friendly taxes and political stability.
o The income tax (ISLR) and the value-added tax are
each set at 10%.
The threat of corruption sown
systematically by transnational organized crime is serious, and it requires the
region's urgent attention.
- In Mexico the criminality surrounding the illicit drug trade is a
"serious national security threat" that undermines the nation's
quality of life, development, and citizen safety.
- Eighteen nations in Central and South America have agreed to a Colombian-led effort to produce a "transit zone" strategy to "confront all the links" in the drug chain.
The Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) emerged in 1962 from a federation of former British
colonies.
- The foundation was first set in 1968 with the
Caribbean Free Trade Association, whose first members included Antigua,
Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.
- Since then, 11 additional members have joined the
group.
- The objective is to form a political and economic
union as well as a common market that would play an integral role in their
future development.
- CARICOM moved to form a regional “Single
Market and economy” (CSME) in 2001.
The communist regime in Cuba remains isolated economically and
politically and has turned into ruins in just five decades.
- Cuba’s inflation-adjusted GDP is 5%
of what it was in 1958, the year before Castro.
- Cuba is unable to meet its own food
production needs and now imports 84% of its food.
- Cuba produced 7 million tons of sugar in
1952, but is down to 1.5 million tons in 2008.
- Economic policies of collectivization,
killing of individual incentive, inefficiency, constant changes of policy
destroyed the economy.
Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro continues to take his country into fascism, funded
by oil revenues.
- Nicolas Maduro followed Hugo Chavez as President,
being duly elected in a contested election.
- Plans to
nationalize country’s major infrastructure-related industries.
- Promoting a
homegrown socialism inspired by the Cuban experience, with Venezuela face.
- Funding FARC, a narco-terrorist organization, that is the ruling power
in several countries.
Bolivia’s Evo
Morales suspended civil liberties and asks for a counterweight to U.S. trade.
- Constitution
enshrines state ownership of natural resources and communal property
principal.
Politicians falling into an authoritarian
populist model have also emerged in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico,
Panama, and Peru.
- While these leaders have leftist economic agendas in common, what
is far more disturbing is that in most cases they advocate the dismantling
of the political and constitutional orders of their countries and the
concentration of power in their hands.
The Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay is host to significant activity by various terrorist groups
and criminal organizations.
- In the period between 1971 and 2001, the
population has increased from 60,000 to 700,000.
- The Tri-border area has a large Arab,
primarily Lebanese, population.
- The Islamic Shia
jihadist group Hezb'allah has used the region
for fundraising and training, and as a base camp from which to carry out
attacks in South America.
Principles:
Support our allies economically and
politically.
- Provide an
economic free trade alternative to hard line regimes.
Reaffirm the central principles of
democratic governance and rule of law.
- Support freedom
of expression, association, and assembly.
- Support
representative democracy.
- Strive for hemispheric
security (criminal, drug, and terrorist Threats).
Recommendations:
Promote Americas Free Trade Agreements
to include as many Latin America countries as possible.
- Approve FTAs
with Peru, Columbia, and Panama.
- Extend trade
preferences to Bolivia and Ecuador.
- Pursue
additional bilateral FTAs with other Latin American countries.
- Cut funding for all Summit of the Americas activities, because they
lost focus on key goal of free trade.
Promote regional collaboration against
transnational crime and terrorism.
References:
“How
Chile Successfully Transformed Its Economy” by Hernan
Buchi Buc dated September
18, 2006 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/WorldwideFreedom/bg1958.cfm .
“Assembly
to rewrite constitution” by Martin Arostegui
dated October 4, 2006 published by Washington Times at http://www.washtimes.com/world/20061003-094140-9693r.htm .
“Latin
America’s Leftist Menace” by Frank J. Gaffney Jr. dated October
16, 2006 published by Front Page Magazine at http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24980 .
“Promote Andean Free Trade But
Limit Preferences” by Ana Isable Eiras and Stephen Johnson dated October 20, 2006 published
by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/TradeandForeignAid/em1014.cfm .
“A Long
Goodbye to Democracy” by Mario Loyola dated January 4, 2007 published
by National Review Online at http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzY0OTczYjJmYTA0NmJiOTY1Njg4NmRjOTc3YTllMzk .
“Collapsing
Venezuela” by Richard W. Rahn dated January
24, 2007 published by Washington Times at http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20070121-102603-4793r.htm .
“Nuance
in Chavez’s Rhetoric Tells of Future Plans for Region” by Helle C. Dale dated February 15, 2007 published by The
Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm1360.cfm .
“Carbon
Copying the Cuban Model” by Eric Driggs
dated July 19, 2007 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=29200 .
“Working
Capitalism” dated July 30, 2007 published by Investors Business Daily
at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=270688290917753 .
“Hectored
by Hugo” by William Ratliff dated August 7, 2007 published by Front
Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3323854F-8CAD-481D-B4B0-D93ED9AA6B78 .
“Brazil’s Economic Growth
Shouldn’t Be Overlooked” by Ian Bremmer
dated October 20, 2007 published by Real Clear Politics at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/brazils_economic_growth_should.html .
“Chavez
Moves Toward War” by Martin Sieff dated
March 7, 2008 published by Human Events Online at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25376 .
“Legacy
or Complacency?” by Roger F. Noriega dated August 6, 2008 published
by American Enterprise Institute at http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28435,filter.all/pub_detail.asp .
“Rethinking
the Summit of the Americas and Advancing Free Trade in Latin America”
by James M. Roberts dated August 8, 2008 published by The Heritage Foundation
at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/bg2170.cfm .
“Communist
Cuba: 50 years of Failure” dated December 30, 2008 published by
Investor’s Business Daily at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=315532982181405 .
“10
Points for President-Elect Obama’s Latin America Strategy” by
James M. Robert and Ray Waiser dated January 9, 2009
at http://www.heritage.org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm2198.cfm .
“Heading
Off Another ‘Lost decade’ in Latin America”
by Roger F. Noriega dated March 17, 2009 published by American Enterprise
Institute at http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.29556/pub_detail.asp .
“Obama
and Lies About Castro’s Cuba” by Christopher Ruddy dated April
20, 2009 published by News Max at http://www.newsmax.com/ruddy/ruddy_castro_cuba/2009/04/20/205214.html .
“El Insulza Conspiracy” dated June 1, 2009 published
by Investor’s Business Daily at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=328747339570574 .
“Economic
Freedom in the ‘Bolivian Andes’ Is Melting Away” by James
M. Roberts dated June 29, 2010 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Economic-Freedom-in-the-Bolivarian-Andes-Is-Melting-Away
.
“U.S.
– Central American Security Cooperation” by Ray Walser dated May 31, 2011 published by The Heritage
Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Testimony/2011/05/US-Central-American-Security-Cooperation
.
“Time
for U.S. Leadership at the Organization of American States” by Ray Walser published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/06/Time-for-US-Leadership-at-the-Organization-of-American-States
.
“Quiet
Success in South America” by Jaime Daremblum
dated November 11, 2011 published by PJ Media at http://pjmedia.com/blog/quiet-success-in-south-america/
.
“CARICOM:
U.S. Should Push Back Against Chavez in the Caribbean” by Ryan Olson
and James M. Roberts dated October 19, 2012 published by The Heritage
Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/caricom-us-should-push-back-against-chavez-in-the-caribbean
.
“Chile’s
Path to Development: Key Reforms to Become the First Developed Country in Latin
America” by Cristian Larroulet
dated October 15, 2013 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/10/chiles-path-to-development-key-reforms-to-become-the-first-developed-country-in-latin-america
.
“Is
Paraguay the Texas of South America?” by Silvio
Canto, Jr. dated October 11, 2015 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/10/is_paraguay_the_texas_of_south_america.html
.
“The Hezb’allah Threat in the Tri-Border Area”
by Zachary Leshin dated February 28, 2018 published
by American Thinker at https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/the_hezballah_threat_in_the_triborder_area.html
.
