It’s Nov. 4, 2008, Election Day, and we’re driving north from Granada, Nicaragua. Everywhere we stop, my Obama T-shirt is greeted with cheers and approval. This is the sentiment throughout Latin America. Clearly, the new Obama administration is starting off with an important reservoir of goodwill in this huge region.
In addition, Hugo Chávez, the fiery, anti-American president of Venezuela, is struggling. High oil prices had enabled him to dole out favors to countries like Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua and to promote leaders like Nicaragua’s Sandinista President, Daniel Ortega. But now prices have dropped well below the $95 per barrel that he needs to sustain himself, so Chávez no longer has the cash to pay for his anti Americanism. Recently, he had to ask Nicaragua for food in return for his support, which has driven prices up for already impoverished Nicaraguans.
These two factors create a new window of opportunity for the incoming Obama administration. What should be done? Here are several ideas, some easy and immediate, others tougher and longer-term.
Relations with Cuba. While the transition from Fidel to Raul Castro may mean little immediate change, we should take the initiative and reconsider our long-lived but unsuccessful embargo. A first easy but symbolic step would be to revoke the Bush prohibition on Cuban Americans sending remittances back to family members in Cuba. This prohibition has been especially cruel this year when Cuba has been battered by several severe hurricanes.
We should also expand our diplomatic presence within Cuba.
Immigration. Now that the elections are over, there’s no reason why the Congress can’t set aside the ugly rhetoric and work out some basic issues like:
• The fact that there are jobs in industries like construction that Americans simply won’t take; therefore immigrant workers are essential.
• The need for a foolproof identification system to separate those who are here legally from those who are illegal.
• An expanded guest-worker program for those who simply want to come here, make the kind of money they can’t make in their home country and then go home.
• A path to legalization for those who are here and want to stay.
Trade. Why not establish a high-level Canada-Mexico-United States commission to review NAFTA? I believe that it has been a success. Colorado’s exports to Mexico, for example, tripled between 1997 and 2007 and now total almost $1 billion. Nonetheless, such a three-country commission could certainly find areas that need improvement. Maybe such a process would help us face our economic problems directly instead of continuing to use NAFTA as a whipping boy.
Another simmering trade issue is the proposed agreement with Colombia, a country that we almost destroyed with our demand for illegal drugs.
Drugs. When our delegation met with Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2007, we were told that progress was being made but that “the drug war is like a balloon. You press down here and it pops up somewhere else.”
We are pressing down in Colombia, but look at the dramatic increase in violence not only along the U.S.-Mexico border where drug cartels fight it out with highly sophisticated weapons but throughout Mexico. Look at Afghanistan, where the drug trade is undercutting our efforts and costing American lives.
There is understandable reluctance to legalize drugs, for both moral and economic reasons. At some point, however, we have to find a way to reduce the violence that almost destroyed Colombia, could cost us Afghanistan and is in the process of destabilizing our neighbor, Mexico.
Democracy is in danger of disappearing in Nicaragua. A Chávez-Ortega style of strongman politics could take over. This would be a great tragedy for Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in Latin America after Haiti. At the same time, it is another opportunity for us Americans to show that our way is better. Let’s take advantage of it.
Former Colorado state Rep. Morgan Smith is currently involved in several educational projects in Nicaragua and lives in Santa Fe, N.M.
