Weekly Roundup: Lula and Obama, Trucks and Tariffs, Ecopetrol and Petrobras

Perhaps the Obama administration decided it was time to take action on U.S.-Latin American relations because of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s March 14 visit to Washington. Perhaps it’s because of the recent media focus on organized crime in the U.S.-Mexico border area. Or Perhaps it’s because of April’s impending Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, when U.S. President Barack Obama will meet most hemispheric leaders for the first time.

Last week, Obama named Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela, as his advisor for the upcoming summit. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels to Mexico from March 25 to the 26 to discuss cooperation on a variety of issues, including the Merida Initiative. And Vice President Joseph Biden heads to Chile for a progressive leaders summit and to Costa Rica from March 27 to 30. The global economic crisis will likely stand as the biggest issue at the summit in Port of Spain, which takes place April 17 through 19.

COA’s Eric Farnsworth joined the Diane Rehm Show on March 18 to talk about Latin American issues and U.S. relations with the region. Listen to the show using Real Audio or Windows Media.

Read a blog post about the summit preparations by Americas Quarterly’s Liz Harper.

AS/COA hosts an event in advance of Clinton’s Mexico visit. The March 24 program features a videoconference of speakers in Washington and New York.

Lula Visits Obama

Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil paid a visit to his U.S. counterpart on March 14 to talk about pushing forward the languishing Doha Round of trade talks and what Lula described as Obama’s “unique” window to improve relations with Latin America. The Brazilian leader also suggested that, when Obama comes to Brazil, he’ll invite him to “get inside a car that is run by a flex-fuel engine and he will feel very comfortable.” Despite the playful banter, Obama said there will no immediate change to U.S. tariffs on Brazil’s sugarcane-based ethanol.

Read Fausta’s Blog for liveblogging of the Lula-Obama press conference in which she said, “Lula was focused and laid out the agenda: strong binds between the two countries, free trade, doing away with tariffs particularly on biofuels, job creation, and easing the credit crisis.” Arthur Ituassu, a professor of international relations at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro, writes for openDemocracy about the fact that Lula’s Washington visit comes as Brazil’s presidential race heats up. 

AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini writes in El Diario/La Prensa about Lula’s defense of free trade.

Get additional coverage of the Lula-Obama meeting on AS/COA Online.

Obama Visits Calderón

On his way to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Mexico on April 16 and 17. “President [Felipe] Calderón and Obama will discuss bilateral cooperation including competivity, economic development, security, environment, migration, and social welfare,” said White House spokesman Maximiliano Cortazar on Wednesday Morning.

Calderón Stresses Institutional Strength

In a strongly worded speech delivered at AS/COA’s annual Mexico City conference, Mexican President Felipe Calderón refuted statements about his country’s institutional strength in the face of drug cartel-related violence. He criticized “the distortion of Mexico that exists beyond our borders.” Read his and other speakers’ remarks on AS/COA Online. A surge of Mexican troops in the border city of Ciudad Juarez has led to a “lull” in drug-related violence, reports USA Today.

A Shift in Focus on U.S.-Mexico Border Policy

San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Obama administration plans to shift the U.S. border policy focus away from illegal immigration and toward the flow of American weapons and cash into Mexico. “Nobody is for people not adhering to the rules, but if I had to say what's more threatening to me, some guy busing my table or some guy shipping machine guns down to the drug cartels, I'd say it's the latter,” U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told the newspaper. Bellum, a project of the Stanford Review, examines Obama’s “Cartel Conundrum.”

CFR.org’s Deputy Editor Robert McMahon interviewed former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about the importance of changing immigration policy with the goal of economic revival. “We are going to need to have some workers coming from other parts of the world to do the jobs that Americans will not be willing to do,” says Chertoff. He pointed out that policing the U.S.-Mexico border should remain a government priority while looking for ways to move immigration reforms forward.

U.S.-Mexico: Of Truckers and Tariffs

Dallas Morning News reports that Mexico may retaliate with tariffs after U.S. Congress killed a program allowing a limited number of Mexican trucks to enter the United States. Mexico is expected to release its tariff list soon, but it appears they will target goods coming from states “with powerful Democratic leaders.” The Christian Science Monitor’s global news blog reports that the tariffs represent a commercial value of $2.4 billion and that the Obama administration recommends that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative works with the Department of Transportation to develop a new trucking program.

Learn more about the U.S.-Mexico trucker program at AS/COA Online.

U.S. Commander Cautions about Iran-Hezbollah in LatAm

Voice of America reports that U.S. Southern Command Navy Admiral James Stavridis warned of a link between Hezbollah and narcotrafficking in Colombia as well as increasing Iranian influence in Latin America. Speaking at a March 17 Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing, Stavridis cautioned about the six new Iranian embassies opened in Latin America over the past five years.

Private Security Industry Grows in Chile

Chile’s Centro de Investigación e Información Periodística published an extensive report on the growing business of private security in that country. The $1 billion industry cashes has grown at a double-digit pace, and the report chronicles how companies have benefitted from a climate of fear over insecurity in Chile.

Plan Proposed to Settle Argentina’s Old Debt

Financial Times reports on an alternative plan proposed by Argentine lawyer Pablo Giancaterino to settle the longstanding feud between investors and the Argentine government. Giancaterino represents investors who sued the government in Buenos Aires with class-action suits to force payment on defaulted bonds since 2001. His plan involves taking the $2.2 billion won in class action suits against the Argentine government and creating a trust with the goal of reinvesting the trust’s interest in tax-free energy and infrastructure projects in Argentina.

FMLN Victorious in El Salvador

After a contentious battle between the longstanding ruling party and former-Marxist-guerillas, Salvadorans chose leftist candidate Mauricio Funes as their next president in March 15 elections. Funes immediately sought to put aside division, making calls for national unity. Despite claims made by his opponent that Funes would follow in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, the president-elect describes himself as more of a social democrat in the vein of Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But some fear that more radical members of his party could pull Funes further to the left.

Read new AS/COA analysis.

Ecopetrol-Petrobras Alliance for Exploration in Peru

Colombia’s Ecopetrol announced it will buy shares from Brazilian oil company Petrobras in two exploration blocks located in the Peruvian Amazon that the state-owned firms will explore together. The acquisitions are part of to Ecopetrol’s capital plan to invest $60 billion from 2008 to 2015 in exploration and increasing production.

Rumors of a Russian Base in Venezuela, Cuba

Miami Herald’s Cuban Colada blog reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez used his weekly television show to dispel rumors that his country will allow Moscow to build a Russian air force base. However, Chávez will allow the Russian military aircraft to touch down in his country, as he did in September. The blog reports that Havana has not yet commented on whether it would host a Russian base. National Journal’s Global Security Newswire offers additional coverage.

Morales Kicks Off Land Redistribution

Bolivian President Evo Morales set in motion land redistributions to indigenous farmers. Morales, supported by the new constitution that went into effect in February, gave about 94,000 acres to Guarani Indians. Morales also asked landowners to voluntarily give up tracts of land in the interest of equality. Landowners can petition against the land redistribution.

Nicaragua Tackles Water Pollution

IPS reports on steps taken in Nicaragua to recuperate contaminated water sources. A new wastewater treatment plant serves as the first of a series of steps necessary to clean up Managua’s lake after decades of uninterrupted dumping of sewage water into it. “For 82 years we have turned Central America’s largest lake into the world’s biggest toilet,” says scientist and environmentalist Jaime Incer Barquero.

Young Latin Americans Favor Free Trade, Poll Says

A new survey conducted by Poder, Newsweek, and pollster Zogby finds that that 63 percent of Latin Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that free trade “benefits all people.” It also showed ample confidence for American President Barack Obama and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as leaders who are best qualified to lead their countries. On the flip side, Latin Americans rated Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales as the worst suited to lead any country.

Remittances to Decelerate in 2009

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) forecasted a decline in remittances to Latin American countries in 2009. The trend began in the third quarter of 2008, when growth was flat. In the last quarter, remittances dropped by $17 billion, a decrease of 2 percent compared with the same period during the previous year. “While it is too early to project by how much remittances may decline in 2009, this is bad news for millions of people in our region who depend on these flows to make ends meet,” said IADB President Luis Alberto Moreno.

Disparity in Economic Downturn’s Effects on Region

PBS’ “Online NewsHour” takes up the cases of Honduras and Brazil to show the differences in how the global financial crisis is hitting individual Latin American countries. While Honduras depends on remittances—making up a quarter of its GDP—from relatives living in the United States, Brazil’s fiscal policies have rendered it well positioned to weather global economic turmoil, says the report.

Press Freedom Declines in the Americas

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concluded at its midyear meeting in Paraguay that the climate for press freedom is worsening in Latin America. According to IAPA, reasons for the decline include “murders of journalists and violence against them, campaigns to discredit the press and a climate of hostility by some governments towards news media and reporters and as a consequence of the U.S. newspaper industry crisis.”