As was made clear in Wednesday’s editorial, President Barack Obama’s visits last week to Cuba and Argentina could be said to have had as their overriding objective the “normalization of relations” between the USA and those two countries. But the inference could also be drawn that the visits were important with respect to taking steps towards normalizing relations with the rest of Latin America, in particular those countries that have been using the USA’s historically heavy-handed approach to Cuba as an excuse for distancing themselves from – if not outright opposition to – the hemispheric influence of the colossus of the north.
Obviously, the Cuban trip was a huge step forward in the complicated process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba. In the case of Argentina, Mr Obama was normalizing a historically strong bilateral relationship, which had come under severe strain during Argentina’s twelve and a half years under the husband and wife tag team of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Indeed, by visiting Argentina, Mr Obama was also giving the new president, Mauricio Macri, a timely boost in his efforts to normalize Argentina’s economy and international standing with regard to global trade and finance – the theme of normalization clearly transcending the American president’s own intentions.
In addition, at the request of the Macri government, the Obama administration announced that it would declassify military and intelligence documents about US relations with the last Argentine military dictatorship. Both presidents also visited a memorial for the victims of the dictatorship. Although these moves were largely seen as a response to criticisms of Mr Obama for arriving on the 40th anniversary of the coup that installed the dictatorship, they were also regarded as key to the internal process of normalization and reconciliation in Argentina, as well as the normalization of relations between the two countries.
With regard to Cuba, whilst it is generally accepted that the Cuban leadership wishes to manage the pace of change as carefully as possible, the process of normalization takes on an added dimension when it is considered that, notwithstanding Cuban assertions of sovereignty and an understandable determination to chart their own course, in the view of long-time Cuba expert, the Cuban-born, Harvard professor of government, Jorge Domínguez, Mr Obama, in his speech to the people of Cuba and his interactions with Cubans at all levels, “lifted the ‘embargo’ on the exchange of ideas, citizens, businesses, religious communities and more.”
Moreover, according to the former chief of the US Interests Section in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, “By taking along members of Congress, business people, and Cuban-Americans, Obama built a powerful constituency for Cuba, looking forward. Each of these groups has work to do: Congress must modify or repeal laws that govern US policy on Cuba; Cuban-Americans are still a powerful force, and their support for reconciliation and normalization is critical; and US businesses can sway Congress.”
In other words, Mr Obama’s visit was a catalyst for change, particularly in the opening up of new trade, investment and business possibilities, as well as people-to-people linkages, between the two countries. Most critically and even though major obstacles to the full normalization of relations still exist, Mr Obama has effectively removed the US as the bogeyman in the Cuban narrative; that is to say, the Cuban government can no longer blame US hostility for the suffering of its people. True, the embargo still exists but there is no longer any justification for the siege mentality that the Cuban government has used to rally the Cuban people for the best part of six decades. They, surely, will increasingly clamour for change even as it remains to be seen just how quickly change will come about in Cuba.
In the wider context of US-Latin America relations, the new détente has also served to ease tensions across Latin America where US policy has, especially since the George W Bush years, been viewed with suspicion and distrust. With Argentina also now seen as a close ally of the USA and with the influence of Brazil and Venezuela on the wane, the stage is set for a realignment of relations in the Americas and, quite possibly, the gradual normalization of relations across the whole continent and a new wave of hemispheric multilateral agreements in areas such as trade, energy and security.
All the above processes will clearly take time and patient diplomacy. Furthermore, with Mr Obama due to demit office in nine months’ time, one has to hope that the momentum being generated will prove irreversible and that the new US administration will fully appreciate the need to maintain the course of normalization.
