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President Obama and the OAS.

Article Excerpt
It is no surprise that the new administration of Barack Obama has been getting a lot of advice about how it should approach US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years. There is an enormous sense of opportunity right now, a feeling that the time could be ripe for shaping a more productive relationship between Washington and the region.

Most of the ideas have focused on controversial policy questions of great concern to Latin America. In addition to the usual array of issues-trade, immigration, drugs, and Cuba--there is a great deal of interest in whether or not relationships will change with countries like Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia. How will the new administration tackle this agenda? How should it tackle the agenda? Another very important-and much less frequently asked question--is how President Obama will deal with the inter-American system and, specifically, the Organization of American States. Will the new administration continue to give it ample financial assistance (roughly 60 percent of the total budget) and perfunctory political support? Or will it attempt to reenergize an institution that has been limited in its ability to carry out critical functions? The fact is that it is hard to separate the specific policy challenges in Latin America from those facing the hemisphere's institutional architecture.

Given budgetary pressures and other foreign policy priorities, the Obama administration

is unlikely to give more aid money or even attention to Latin America. But what should be reasonably expected of President Obama is a greater...

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