Biden Can’t Pick Up in Latin America Where Obama Left Off

With president-elect Joseph Biden so well versed and well traveled in Latin America, optimism about the future course of U.S. relations with its southern neighbors is running high. But in diplomacy as in finance, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Momentous shifts in Latin America, never mind four years of malign neglect by the U.S., will make it all but impossible for a Biden administration to pick up where the Obama administration left off. What’s needed is a new approach that tackles the current health and migration crises, transforms the traditional U.S. promotion of democracy, security and trade, and incorporates Latin American nations into the broader global foreign policy agenda.

When Biden last guided U.S.-Latin America policy as President Barack Obama’s main emissary to the region, nearly all its countries were secure and stable democracies. They generally met the goals of free and fair elections, separation of powers and other rules laid out in the Organization of American States’ 2001 democratic charter. The region’s salutary crusade against corruption was in full bloom. It was in the midst of an over decade-long economic boom, outpacing many other world regions. The percentage of those living in poverty had edged down to 30%, from 45% at the start of the millennium, and the ranks of the middle class had swelled, raising living standards and popular expectations for an even better life in the future.