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Council On Hemispheric Affairs
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Monitoring
Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
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Memorandum to the Press 04.71
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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.
TO READ THE ENTIRE TEXT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE
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
The Council on Hemispheric
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