The Fallout From Washington's Time Warp on Cuba
A Letter From Cartagena
Article Summary and Author Biography
The Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena had an ambitious agenda, but Washington's inability to agree with the rest of Latin America on how to include Cuba left the high-level gathering largely a bust.
RICHARD E. FEINBERG is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, San Diego and the author of Summitry in the Americas. He served as advisor to President Bill Clinton on inter-American affairs from 1993-96.
Snapshot
After last month's fractious Trinidad Summit, what can the Obama administration do to restore the promise of regional cooperation?
Obama in Cartagena. (Kevin Lamarque / Courtesy Reuters)
In preparatory talks, the countries of the Western Hemisphere that gathered at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, this past weekend had agreed on a range of initiatives on mutual interests, from improving access to electricity for the rural poor and fighting criminal syndicates to better preparing for natural disasters. In the run-up, there was wide support, if not full consensus, for public policies that promote international commerce, technological innovation, quality education, and public-private partnerships. Hopes were high that with a competent and engaged Colombian government as host, the summit would be among the most productive.
But that was before some Latin American countries diverted the attention of leaders and the media from the agenda by inserting spoiler issues on which they knew the U.S. delegation would not budge: the failure of the long-standing "war on drugs" and the dislodging of the United Kingdom from the Falkland Islands. It was the demand to admit Cuba to inter-American summitry that ultimately stymied agreement on a final political declaration. More alarming still, key Latin American countries, including Brazil, are now on the public record as refusing to attend another inter-American summit that omits Cuba.
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