Of all the regions in the world, apart from North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico), Latin America represents perhaps the greatest untapped potential for symbiotic partnerships and economic growth for the U.S. Economically, the region is extremely rich in natural resources, with agriculture, mining and manufacturing being the backbone of its economy. It has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, among the largest gas reserves, bauxite, gold, silver, lithium, coltan, copper, cocoa, coffee, sugar, agriculture, fish, aquaculture and more.
Geographically it is proximate to the U.S., with established trade routes that are simple, relatively short, straightforward and conducive to multiple forms of transportation. We share Judeo-Christian values with every nation in Latin America, and they pose no realistic threat to us militarily. Politically, Latin America is quasi-democratic, with bouts of socialist ideology and historic flirtations with communism, exported from Cuba and championed by the occasional charismatic, visionary, strongman leader. Those leaders often raise the pirate flag against the U.S., and decry the Yankee imperialist boot, but those initiatives have been generally geared toward crystalizing support domestically and have rarely interfered with the underlying trade and economic international relationships that are essential to supporting their economies.
Having said that, historically the U.S. has ignored Latin America in a way that has left an opening for our competitors. Examples include China, investing in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil and Russia, investing in Cuba and Venezuela. While Russia’s involvement in Latin America has been mischievous and annoying at times, it hasn’t been economically definitive in any substantial way, and doesn’t pose any real imminent threat. China on the other hand, is a different story. As part of its global growth strategy, it has made substantial, long-term investments in the region, and poses a very real threat to our influence and relationships there, not to mention our economy and our national security. This should be a major foreign policy concern for the U.S. and a primary focus of U.S. leadership across the board.
If mass immigration from Latin America is a major problem for the U.S., it is in large part because living conditions in Latin America are generally extremely poor, dangerous and unhealthy for the vast majority of its citizens. So, they leave for the U.S., where even the most challenging standard of living is way better than the options they have at home. Seen through the lens of economic opportunity, Latin America is a tremendously undervalued asset, for the most part being mismanaged in a way that gives way to kleptocracy and organized crime, tolerated and in some cases even led by dictators who stay in power by force, exploiting their societies for their own personal financial gain. In some cases, naïve U.S. foreign policy, has unintentionally enabled and fostered these conditions through ill-advised sanctions and economic embargoes. Rather than form bridges and long term, mutually beneficial economic partnerships with our neighbors to the south, we ostracize them. Rather than unify around a common purpose – economic growth for our countries – we fragment and alienate otherwise very valuable partners. Moreover, we leave an opening for our rivals to enter and fill the void with direct investment that enables them to pick and harvest the relatively low hanging economic fruit.
To put a fine point on it, we allow the Chinese to invest in Latin American assets, at a discount of 90-95%, and then watch those assets appreciate by hundreds, if not thousands, of percent. This makes no sense. Why aren’t we doing that? This is our hemisphere, these are our neighbors, and those types of economic benefits should accrue to us, not competitors from halfway around the world, whose interests are in conflict with ours. The opportunity for us to vastly and immediately grow our economy and help pay for the Accessible American Dream, is right in front of us, just to the south. By helping our neighbors grow, we participate in that growth, and create a rising regional tide that will dramatically lift all boats. In short, we need a western hemisphere, united around the common goal of economic growth, where we have compelling geopolitical and national security interests, in making certain that goal is achieved. By uniting our American hemisphere around these common interests, we can define an economic path that leads to tremendous growth now and in the future, both for the U.S. and our neighbors.