Biden—New U.S. Point Man for Latin America?
Biden—New U.S. Point Man for Latin America?
Vice President Joe Biden’s 2016 hopeful presidential candidacy may turn U.S.-Latin American relations into a foreign policy priority as he tours the region, points out AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
Perhaps Secretary of State John Kerry’s lack of attention to Latin America might not be so bad after all — it is moving Vice President Joe Biden to get more involved with the region, and may help turn U.S.-Latin American relations into a White House foreign policy priority.
Biden’s six-day tour of Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil this week has raised eyebrows in Washington. Shortly before, on May 8, Biden had delivered a speech at the State Department on the future of U.S.-Latin American ties.
Kerry, who has been busy trying to broker a peace deal in the Middle East and dealing with the North Korean crisis, has not traveled to Latin America since he started his new job. (His first trip, barring last minute changes, may be for next week’s Organization of American States General Assembly in Guatemala, U.S. officials tell me.
Well-placed officials in Washington say that Biden’s trip to Latin America is more than a temporary substitution for Kerry, and that the vice president will become a de facto Obama administration point man for the region. Among other things, he is likely to head a cabinet-level U.S. delegation to Mexico in the fall, they say….
Eric Farnsworth, head of the Washington office of the Council of the Americas, a New York-based business-centered group, says that Biden may play a key role in U.S.-Latin American ties not only because he is in the White House, close to the president and has close connections in Congress, but also because he is believed to be a leading presidential hopeful for 2016.
“The fact that the vice president is somebody who may run for president in 2016 is very important politically,” Farnsworth told me. “When he meets with foreign leaders, they see him in a different context because he is a potential president.”
My opinion: The fact that Biden has become actively interested in improving ties with Latin America is good news, but the big question is whether this will result in something more tangible than political tourism….
