Develop a New Hemispheric Vision

For many years most Latin American presidents favored maintaining close relations with the United States. The best university students coveted scholarships to attend graduate school in the U.S., and thousands of the more than 190 million poor in our region migrated to the U.S.—sometimes at great personal risk.

But “the times, they are a-changin’.” Today, many Latin American leaders—and their people—are trying to establish some distance and develop their own world views while at the same time work together toward achieving a more permanent autonomy. President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and a few others hurl heavy verbal artillery at the U.S. every day. While other socialist presidents in the region may not be as offensive, the recent creation of the South American Security Council lead by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in which even Colombia, the closest ally of the U.S. is participating, is symptomatic of the change.

It’s not so much that the region has become anti-American…