In a tour through several Latin American nations, and during a stop in Buenos Aires, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, numbered the conditions that, according to him, the next Argentinean president to be elected on March 30th next year should have.
In his judgment, the “ideal” ruler for Washington should:

. “Respect the free market.”

. “Respect individual freedoms.”

. “Respect human rights.”

. “Respect the real financial opportunities –not only the rhetorical ones—of the people.”

. “Not to be a threat to his neighbors and to have good relations with them.”

. Not to give “any support to drug traffic, international terrorism, or international crime.”

The candidate’s profile wished by the government of George Bush –prototype for the rest of Latin America—is an allegory of political sarcasm. In other words, the republican administration tells the Latin American governments: Do as I say, not as I do.

It’s ironic for the republicans in the White House, to ask the Latin American countries for the subsidies that have impoverished the national companies and the agriculture in the region.

How can the republican government associate the nations “real” financial opportunities with the uncontrollable globalization itself promotes in the world and that, in fact, means an increment of power for the mega corporations and greater social inequality for the nations?

And how to understand its demands on respect to human rights when in their own house the civil rights of the immigrants are being questioned and, at the same time, at global level, the International Penal Court approved by the United Nations, which attempts to judge war crimes and torture worldwide, is denied?

Finally, is this Decalogue of the good president, to promote help and understanding with neighboring nations is suggested. The invocation must have twitched the nerves of more than one Argentinean in this moment when the Washington government, knowing the urgency that Argentina has of a strong injection of resources to come out of its crisis, denies the help and imposes ferocious conditions to lend a few dollars.

Taking into account that in the next few days a special mission from the American government is arriving in Argentina to study the possibility of providing help to the impoverished country, Reich’s suggestion sounded as an imposition for many local politicians. When Reich finished his theory of the perfect president, an Argentinean journalist, using the same cynicism, asked to the ambassador why he did not include the fight against corruption; in reference to the financial scandal that shakes Wall Street.

The answer was not convincing, of course.

It’s been always said that the Unites States has never designed policy on Latin America. It’s time for that. The fact that there’s no strategy for the region doesn’t necessarily mean that political answers are not being produced in those countries.
In spite of U.S. wishes, Chavez returned to the presidency in Venezuela, Evo Morales was second in the elections in Bolivia, and Lula profiles himself increasingly sharp in Brazil. Maybe these are not precisely the answers Bush expects from Latin America.