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...World's new paradox. Latin America today is less dependent on Washington, and less tolerant of its interventionism, than it has been for decades, thanks to the counterweight of rising star Brazil and the anti-U.S. gospel of Venezuela's oil-rich leftist President, Hugo Chávez. Yet for all that newfound self-reliance, Latin America still looks to the U.S.'s superpower leadership to put the squeeze on rogues like the Honduran coupsters. No other force in the western hemisphere, not Brazil, and certainly not the Organization of American States, wields the requisite economic and diplomatic clout...
...result, any perceived indifference to Honduras on Obama's part could sour his start and make it harder to engage the region on matters Washington cares about, like drugs and trade. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, who tacitly backed a failed coup attempt against Chávez in 2002, promised a new relationship with Latin America, but saw his free-trade plan for the hemisphere die and drug production soar. Now even moderate Latin leaders are decrying Washington's quiet efforts to use military bases in Colombia for U.S. antidrug operations; their pique will increase if they decide Honduras...
Perhaps more important, the Globovisión feud points to how the U.S. and Venezuela can prod each other to better hemispheric images during the Honduran crisis. The "do something" remark was vintage Chávez, but it also reflected a growing concern in the hemisphere and beyond that Obama isn't exerting enough pressure on Micheletti, and therefore may not be as committed as he has declared to reversing Washington's long history of aiding military coups against leaders who aren't necessarily U.S allies. Likewise, Chávez needs to realize that his calls for Micheletti's regime...
...effort to reach out to the Obama Administration. On the U.S. side, much of the credit goes to Thomas Shannon, outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Shannon, appointed in 2005, worked to alter President George W. Bush's dark first-term relations with Latin America, when Chávez called Bush "the devil" in large part because the White House had tacitly backed the 2002 coup attempt. As a result, the Latin left has less anti-Yanqui fodder to ignite. Shannon's nominated successor, Arturo Valenzuela, should have an easier time as a result. Still, even...
Still, Clinton might have chosen a smarter channel for voicing those concerns. Globovisión's gratuitous anti-Chávez crusade is hardly a paragon of media professionalism. At a time when Clinton is condemning the Honduran coup, it rankles Chavistas that she'd promote a network that unabashedly backed a similar overthrow attempt seven years ago. Obama reached out to an often hostile Arab world by granting his first foreign media interview as President to al-Jazeera. Clinton's comments may have resonated in Venezuela and Latin America more effectively had she shared them with Telesur or other...