Feature

Obama Should Break With Past on Latin America

By Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Bolivian President Evo Morales talks with the press in Washington, DC. Morales has stated that he hopes to improve diplomatic relations with the US under an Obama administration. (Photo: Reuters)

    President-elect Obama's historic triumph was welcomed in Latin America by left-of-center governments who saw it as a continuation of their own electoral victories. Even before the election, President Lula da Silva of Brazil said, "Just as Brazil elected a metal worker, Bolivia elected an Indian, Venezuela elected Chavez and Paraguay a bishop, I think that it would be an extraordinary thing if, in the largest economy in the world, a black man were elected president of the United States."

    Obama has an opportunity to forge a new relationship with the region after his predecessor drove US-Latin American relations into a ditch. But it will require a major change in Washington's attitude toward our southern neighbors.