After US President George W. Bush’s long trip to Latin America this spring, the US has announced a number of very small humanitarian and aid initiatives for the region which appear like buy-offs to the uninitiated.  Dedicating just $20 million (the cost of a single day of the continuing Iraqi war), the US has put a large hospital ship off the coast of several Central American cities  in an effort to buy popularity.  One can’t help but notice how much this mini-mission has in common with the itinerant Cuban doctors working in Venezuela.

While no one doubts that free, high-quality medical care in Latin America’s poorest countries is welcome, or that the US doctor’s working aboard the ship are acting out of good will, the question is whether small gestures like this a) can be described, as US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson argued, “spreading opportunity, reducing poverty and building the middle class,” and b) together add up to a US policy towards Latin America, something that has been sorely missing for most of the two Bush administrations.

On the first, I’m not sure how a bit of temporary and medical care off the coast of Panama City can “build the middle class,” or reduce poverty, something that Latin American governments, policy makers and international bureaucrats have been trying to do for at least two decades through targeted poverty and inequality reduction programmes.  I must admit that the link to spreading opportunity is lost on me as well.

On the second and more critical point, the US should not expect that eight years worth of neglect for the region can be erased overnight by an ad hoc policy of small interventions.  Political, economic and social conditions in Latin America are vastly different than they were in 2001, in no small part because of changes that have happened in the international economy during that time.  Political allegiances have shifted, new trading partners have arisen and the FTAA has failed, new political leaders have found favour and strong social movements have risen.  Several Latin American countries, in particular Brazil, Mexico and to a lesser extent Venezuela, have become much more active participants in global governance, taking on an international leadership role. 

This means is that the US might have literally "missed the boat" and that they  cannot expect to play a critical role in shaping the destiny of the region in the first quarter of this century.  But this is not necessarily a bad thing for Latin America and its people...