OAS chief sees hope amid troubles

Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States (OAS), was interviewed at his headquarters last week by Washington Times reporter Sharon Behn.

Question: The last two years have been marked by substantial political and economic events. How have these events affected current U.S.-Latin America relations?

Answer: The significant effort by President Bush to have closer relations with Latin America I think was stopped by several things. One was the 11th of September. That was a significant setback, because the U.S. moved its eyes to the fight against terrorism, and of course some of the will of the president was lost in the change of priorities of the U.S. administration, which is totally comprehensible.

The second very critical element was the crisis of volatility of capital in Argentina, and I would say the U.S. was not very constructive. Treasury Secretary [Paul] O’Neill made some strong remarks that were a blow to relations. [But] after a while the U.S. Treasury changed its policy, and helped Uruguay, helped Brazil.

And the third element is the Security Council issue and the war on Iraq. That is the most recent thing that has altered the relations with Latin America because of the differences with Chile, and Mexico and Brazil.

Q: Has the United States been able to start to repair these relations?

A: The financial issues are already behind us. Let’s start with the change of priorities. I think this a permanent feature of the foreign policy of the U.S., and any effort to improve the relations has to take into consideration that a very high priority for U.S. policy is the fight against terrorism. The U.S. will not change its priorities. You need to accommodate policy to that.

Q: You are referring to whom?

A: Both sides. If the government of the U.S. decides to try to improve relations with Latin America, Latin Americans should know that that cannot mean changing the priorities of U.S. policy. Latin Americans have to recognize that no matter what effort is being made, the priorities of the U.S. are there.

Q: How would you describe economic relations between the United States and Latin America?

A: There has been an important change in the U.S. policy in relation to these matters reflected in the significant help they provided to Uruguay and the change of emphasis in policy in relation to Brazil, the financial problems of Brazil. So I think that aspect of policy has improved.

But I would say what is needed is a more-deliberate decision to help in financial issues. And I think the critical case at this moment is Argentina. It’s very important for all Latin America that this issue of Argentina is solved in a satisfactory way.

Q: How long will that take?

A: I don’t know. The director of the [International Monetary Fund] was there. They are saying they are going to work an agreement out in the next two or three months. I think they have to sign it by August, a medium-term agreement, which will be a significant change in relations with Argentina and probably could help to get Argentina out of the crisis.

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