From: mart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Fw: [CubaNews] "Global fight against terrorism will displace democracy in the re Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: Julio V. Ruiz, M.D. To: Cuban-American Geriatric Educational Foundation Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 10:00 AM Subject: [CubaNews] "Global fight against terrorism will displace democracy in the region" The Miami Herald Published Sunday, September 23, 2001 Andres Oppenheimer: The Oppenheimer Report Nations want emphasis to be democracy After Friday's unanimous vote by the 34 Organization of American States member countries to offer their active support in the U.S. war on terrorism,it's time to focus on Latin America's biggest fears about President Bush's upcoming offensive. Judging from interviews with key Latin American officials and academics in recent days, one of their main concerns is that the global fight against terrorism will displace democracy as the No. 1 U.S. foreign policy priority in the region. They fear that we may go back to the days of the Cold War, when Washington turned a blind eye to corrupt Latin American leaders who happened to be on our side. ``This is not idle speculation, it's something that we have already gone through,'' said Argentina's former foreign minister Dante Caputo, who like most of those interviewed support the OAS resolution adopted Friday. ``There was a time when many in Washington thought that [former Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio] Somoza or [former Chilean strongman Augusto] Pinochet were good guys.'' Until the mid-1970s, the United States supported many sleazy leaders in the region because they were thought to help provide ``stability'' and contain the communist threat. The going line in Washington was that these right-wing leaders were bandits, but ``our'' bandits. But it proved to be a costly mistake: Most often, U.S.-backed right-wing regimes created a vicious cycle of violent opposition, political violence,economic uncertainty, capital flight and ``revolutions'' that in many cases ended up being anti-American. Many well-placed Latin Americans are uneasy about the Bush administration's effort to relax U.S. laws banning intelligence services from recruiting sleazy characters. They fear that this will end up creating new political monsters, such as terrorist chieftain Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attack on the United States. According to several former American officials,the United States supported and trained bin Laden during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In Latin America, the CIA reportedly held close ties with such shady characters as former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega and Peruvian intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. Both were used by the U.S. intelligence agency to help fight drugs or terrorism, and ended up doing a lot of harm to the United States, and to their own countries. On the economic front, many Latin American opinion-makers fear that Latin America will fade away from the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda,and that recent talks to open U.S. immigration and trade restrictions will be shelved. Only two weeks ago, Bush had said that the United States has ``no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico.'' In his speech to Congress Thursday night, perhaps reflecting the new realities, Bush said that ``America has no truer friend than Great Britain.'' Specifically, Latin American economists worry that Bush's vow to seek passage before the end of this year of legislation to expedite a hemispherewide free-trade agreement might be shelved. Are all these political and economic fears legitimate? They can't be labeled as outrageous, considering the U.S. history in the region. Are they valid? According to top U.S. and Latin American officials, they are not. In separate telephone interviews after the OAS vote, Brazil's foreign minister Celso Lafer and Argentina's foreign minister Adalberto Rodr�guez Giavarini told me that they are not too worried about a possible anti-democratic backlash. Under a democratic charter that was signed in Peru the very day that the terrorists attacked New York and Washington, the 34 OAS member contries committed themselves to take collective actions against any member nation that breaks democratic rule. This will help prevent any possible erosion of democratic institutions, the ministers said. As for the concerns that Washington will forget about hemispheric free trade, both said they were encouraged by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's invitation to them for a joint meeting Monday to discuss expediting free-trade agreements. And other senior Latin American diplomats told me that, perhaps, Bush might include the hemispheric free-trade plan in the economic recovery package that he is about to submit to Congress, which would in effect speed up the free-trade agenda. My guess: Judging from the history of U.S.-Latin American relations, the fears voiced by many Latin Americans are legitimate. But one would hope that Washington has learned something from history, and that the Bush administration will stick to its unreserved commitment to democracy. So far,so good. � 2001 The Miami Herald and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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