YOU SCARE US -- by Carlos Fuentes

[HuckleB]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-fuentes26sep26,1,6717219.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

You Scare Us

by Carlos Fuentes
"The United States is strong. Latin America is weak. This is the basic truth that shapes their relationship. There is no irrational animosity toward the U.S. in Latin America. There is a measure of suspicion balanced by enormous admiration for the culture of Herman Melville to Walt Whitman to William Faulkner, of Hollywood and jazz, of Eugene O'Neill to Arthur Miller. Nor is there envy of the United States. Latin America is deeply aware of its cultural values. Our personality is not assailed by gringo fashions. We absorb and adapt to the cultures of the world, including that of the U.S.

The problem lies in foreign policy. Too often, the United States is seen as a benevolent Dr. Jekyll at home and a malevolent Mr. Hyde abroad. The wars against Mexico (1846-1848) and Spain (1898), Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick," Woodrow Wilson's well-intentioned but counterproductive intervention in Mexico during its revolution, incessant and arrogant meddling in Central America. Not an easy menu to swallow. One moment shines through, however: Franklin Roosevelt's "good neighbor" policy, his decision to win Latin American support during World War II through negotiation rather than confrontation.

And after that war, a limpid admiration for the Roosevelt and Truman policies of international cooperation through organizations based on the rule of law. "We all have to recognize," Harry Truman said in 1945, " no matter how great our strength … we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please." The United Nations was a creation of U.S. diplomacy. Its principles were clearly stated and universally accepted. Even when the U.S. violated them in practice during the Cold War, the principles were never renounced.

This brings us to what Latin Americans find so shocking about the Bush administration. Instead of multilateralism, unilateralism. Instead of diplomacy and negotiation and a search for consensus and the use of force only as a last resort, the barbaric principle of preventive war.

..."