Caribbean Basin – Good News and Bad
In a recent colloquium, Latin America specialist Lt. General Gordon Sumner (ret.) discussed the economic, strategic, and political importance to the U.S. of the Caribbean Basin. The region, which he characterized as our “third border,” includes Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Cuba and the other Caribbean island nations, and Guyana and Surinam.
Sumner, outlining the Reagan administration’s views, painted a picture of the Caribbean situation that is both gloomy and hopeful. He described the general status of U.S. hemispheric policy as a “shambles” after the recent Falklands-Malvinas war between Britain and Argentina.
“It’s still hard to believe,” he said, “that these barren islands—home to 1800 ‘Kelpers’ and 600,000 sheep—could be the scene of a ferocious and highly technical war. Partly as a result of the conflict, such long-time institutions as the Monroe Doctrine, the OAS, and the Rio Treaty are being questioned, if not shattered.”
Sumner pointed out that “war has been practically unknown” in the hemisphere. Citing a State Department study, he said that since World War II four million people have been killed in wars (including the Falklands), and of this number only 4000 have died in the Western Hemisphere. Except for the United States, Cuba, and Canada, only 1.4 percent of the area’s GNP is spent on arms.
“Latin America and particularly the Caribbean Basin have been left out of our consciousness by the media,” Sumner continued. “The American people have generally been ignorant of the rest of the hemisphere. They’ve been fed a hodgepodge of myths, misinformation, and simple untruths.
“We are one hemisphere—it’s ‘our’ half of the world, and I don’t mean that in a possessive sense, simply that we all live here. Latin America is part of Western civilization—we’re not dealing with Muslim or Buddhist cultures. These countries are our near neighbors—Washington, for example, is closer to Costa Rica than to San Francisco—and what happens in the Caribbean affects our daily lives.”
Sumner pointed out that the Caribbean Basin is our fourth largest market. We import $30 billion worth of goods from the area and export $31 billion. An estimated six million Americans visited the region last year and spent $1 billion there. Its energy resources, concentrated in Mexico and Venezuela, are among the most extensive in the world; proven reserves of 62 billion bbls. of oil and 106 trillion cubic feet of natural gas; estimated reserves are much higher.
Reviewing major developments since 1978, Sumner described “massive economic disruption” in the area. Prices for sugar, coffee, and bauxite fell in the world market. The Central American countries are an “economic disaster”—almost all are “flat broke.” In Sumner’s view, hopeful signs are “two major reforms in El Salvador—land reforms and elections—that are being downplayed by the media.”
He said that “elections do not make the press”—recent elections and peaceful transfers of power have taken place in Honduras (where a military regime turned over the government to civilians), Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia. Elections in Jamaica and El Salvador did receive much publicity. On July 4, Mexicans elected a new president, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, although the outcome was never in doubt after he was handpicked by the incumbent Jose Lopez Portillo to succeed him.
Cuba united the Central American radical left movement, continued Sumner; he characterized Nicaragua and Grenada as Castro’s “prominent successes.” He also expressed the administration’s concern over Nicaragua’s military buildup, albeit with a light touch: “They’re bringing in heavy tanks and there’s nothing to stop them until they get to Mexico City where they’d get lost.” After this reassurance that Mexico City’s freeway system constitutes our first line of defense, Sumner shed more perspective on the region by pointing out that the Mexican capital has a larger population than all of Central America.
“The U.S. cannot do it alone,” he said. “We’ve asked Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela to join us in developing a Caribbean Basin aid package. Canada has never done much in the hemisphere—they’ve invested billions but never got involved in the problems. Mexico and Venezuela have been running a joint petroleum facility providing oil to Central America and the Caribbean at reduced prices. This program has amounted to $300 million a year in aid. Both countries have assured us that this assistance will continue, and we’ve approached Europe and Japan as well.”
Sumner concluded by acknowledging that “we’ve made a lot of mistakes in this area, but we can’t keep carrying a burden of guilt.” We must avoid polarization, he continued, because it destroys the moderate center.
Note: Sumner recommended the following as the best U.S. sources for news on Latin America—Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, and Diario de las Americas (Miami).
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