Press Memorandum: As Chile and U.S. Relationship Grow Increasingly Close, Lagos Risks Further Isolation in Latin America



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Council On Hemispheric Affairs

Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere

Memorandum to the Press 04.71

 

Word Count: 2500

Weekend Release
Friday, 8 October 2004

 

As Chile and U.S. Relationship Grows Increasingly Close, Lagos Risks Further Isolation in Latin America.

Despite Santiago’s close relations with Washington, the Bush administration was unwilling to support José Miguel Insulza’s candidacy for OAS Secretary General, a key factor in his decision to withdraw his bid. As pressure mounts for new OAS head Miguel Angel Rodriguez to resign due to corruption charges in his native Costa Rica, Santiago’s recent actions and “carnal relationship” with the U.S. could jeopardize Insulza’s prospects if the OAS Secretary-General race reopens, and the latter again decides to run for office.

• Chile has been a faithful consort of U.S. initiatives in the UN and has pragmatically sought to gain financially and diplomatically from close ties with Washington.|

• Chile embarrassingly deferred to the U.S. by yanking Juan Gabriel Valdés from his post as Santiago’s UN ambassador after the highly regarded diplomat adamantly refused to back the White House’s timetable on invading Iraq.
Lagos made this move in order to win approval of a pending bilateral trade agreement with Washington.

• The Lagos administration voted to condemn Cuba’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Commission’s gathering in Geneva earlier this year, ignoring Brazilian and Argentine efforts to persuade Chile to join them in abstaining.

Chile remained completely silent during the U.S.-orchestrated removal of Haiti’s constitutional President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and, in spite of strong domestic opposition, Santiago sent both military and financial aid to Haiti following Aristide’s ouster.

• While over ninety percent of Chileans opposed the war in
Iraq, Lagos has turned a blind eye to the numerous Chilean mercenaries now operating in that country.

• In a major setback, the troubled legacy of the War of the Pacific continued to reverberate as Bolivia decided to construct a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline through Peru, rejecting the cheaper alternative via La Paz’s historic rival, Chile.

• Recent diplomatic spats between
Chile and bordering Bolivia and Argentina have raised tensions in the region as the Lagos government appears increasingly isolated among its neighbors.

• President Lagos would do well to heed the voices of his critics or risk greater alienation of his country within
Latin America as Chile becomes increasingly thought of as Washington’s caddie in the region.


Problems at the OAS
During this past year, Chilean Minister of the Interior José Miguel Insulza was
often discussed as a candidate to become the Organization of American States’ (OAS) new Secretary General. However, last February, Insulza withdrew his bid after failing to receive U.S. endorsement. During the OAS’s General Assembly session in Quito this past June 7, former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez was elected. Since Argentina’s economic collapse in 2000, Santiago has maintained its aspirations to be South America’s next regional leader; a Chilean official elected to the OAS post would have been a giant step for its regional ambitions. Yet, despite increasingly intimate relations with Santiago, Washington still was not ready to press for the Chilean as its “second in command” in the Americas, particularly since Insulza, like former Chilean UN Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdés, took the principled position of ardently opposing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Hence, President Bush was quick to support the Rodriguez nomination. The White House’s rebuff was a signal to Santiago that it must cure its fractious relations with its neighbors and be a more reliable liegeman to Washington’s controversial policies, before it can achieve its aspirations to truly be Washington’s primus inter pares in Latin America.

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This analysis was prepared by David R. Kolker, COHA Reserach Associate.

Additional research was provided by Mark Scott, Alex Sánchez, COHA Research Fellows, and Will Conkling, COHA Research Associate.

October 8, 2004

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