The Monroe Doctrine is Dead, as Latin America Breaks Free

By Benjamin Dangl, The Progressive. Posted February 3, 2009.

The U.S. is also losing influence in Latin America due to the decline of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution through which the U.S. wielded significant power.

"In the last four years the IMF's total loan portfolio has shrunk from $105 billion to less than $10 billion," explains Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington D.C., explains in a recent report. "The organization itself is currently running a $400 million annual deficit and has been forced to downsize."

The Bank of the South is a lending institution first advocated by Chávez, and now embraced by seven South American nations as a substitute for institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.

Other agreements involving trade with each other are in the works. And some South American nations, particularly Venezuela and Bolivia, are looking to Russia and China -- rather than the U.S. -- for new trade and military deals. According to the Associated Press, China's trade with Latin America jumped from $10 billion in 2000 to $102.6 billion in 2007. Recently, Bolivia signed a deal with Russia to purchase five new defense helicopters, and Venezuela announced plans to buy Russian tanks and reconnaissance vehicles. Meanwhile, Brazil inked an $11 billion deal with France in December for military items.

The current financial crisis in the U.S. may signal the end of thirty years of neoliberal trade policies pressed upon the region from the Global North. Some analysts believe the departure from such policies in South America will allow individual economies to better weather the U.S. crisis. Rather than trembling in fear, many Latin American leaders see the U.S. crisis as an opportunity to widen regional integration. "This is the straw that broke the camel's back," Carlsen explains. For his part, Chávez mocked Bush's sudden conversion to nationalizing banks, calling him "Comrade Bush."

It's unclear whether he'll be calling the new President "Comrade Obama." Last May, Obama labeled Chávez a "demagogue" and said, "His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past." Obama also called Morales's and Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega's vision "stale."

Obama's national security spokesperson, Wendy Morigi, also said he was "very concerned" about Morales's expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Goldberg and that Morales was "attempting to lay blame on outsiders." She also commented that Obama was "profoundly troubled by President Hugo Chávez's unprovoked expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy."

But many people in Latin America are sick and tired of being so focused on Washington. As Ecuador's President Correa said upon receiving the news of Obama's victory: "The day will come when Latin America doesn't have to worry about who is in the presidency of the United States, because it will be sovereign and autonomous enough to stand on its own two feet."

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Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007). He is also the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events, and UpsideDownWorld.org, a news website uncovering activism and politics in Latin America. Email BenDangl(at)gmail(dot)com.

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