Article: Romero on Successes and Challenges for U.S. Policy on Western Hemisphere

12 January 2001

Article: Romero on Successes and Challenges for U.S. Policy on Western Hemisphere

Strong and growing consensus on democracy, he says

By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Peter Romero, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, says the United States and its regional allies have made "enormous progress" in strengthening democratic institutions, expanding trade opportunities and fostering cooperation on counternarcotics in the region, but much remains to be done.

Assessing U.S. foreign policy towards the region during the second term of the Clinton administration, Romero said that "in many, many ways, the results have been exceedingly positive," and that "much of what we have done is multilateral."

"There is a strong and growing regional consensus on democracy. We have seen that consensus play out very well in places like Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and other places within the region," he said in remarks January 12 to journalists at the Foreign Press Center.

"We initiated and institutionalized the Summit of the Americas process, which is much more than trade," he added. "It goes well beyond trade and goes into many, many, many issues on the social and political side."

Romero noted the close relationship between the United States and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) which, he said, has led to making the OAS a more effective organization. He praised the OAS role in promoting democracy in Peru and Haiti.

He also praised the multilateral evaluation mechanism developed by the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) on hemispheric counternarcotics cooperation.

In addition, he said, the OAS has played "a significant role" in resolving border disputes, such as the ones between Belize and Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and Honduras and Nicaragua.

In terms of economics, Romero noted the recent passage of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA), which "will have a salutary effect" by granting to Caribbean countries trade benefits similar to those enjoyed by Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NAFTA is working and has resulted "in burgeoning trade with Canada and Mexico," he said, noting that Canada is the United States' leading trade partner, and Mexico ranks second. The economic growth rate in Mexico in the year 2000, he said, is among the highest in the region.

Negotiations, Romero said, are on track for establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by the target date of 2005 -- and governmental working groups are meeting on a regular basis.

In Brazil and Argentina, he noted, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the U.S. Department of Treasury and the State Department were swift in responding to the financial crisis in 1998 and 1999.

Romero said there also has been "an exceedingly prompt and adequate response" on the part of the United States to natural disasters in the region, particularly Hurricanes Georges and Mitch in Central America and the Caribbean.

In terms of improved security, Romero pointed to the resolution of the longstanding Peru-Ecuador border dispute and "a seamless turnover" of the Panama Canal to Panamanian government control. The Canal, he said, is being run by Panama "extremely efficiently."

On the subject of counternarcotics, he said that Bolivia and Peru collectively have experienced a 50-percent reduction in coca production. The Chapare area in the Andes is now coca-free, he said.

The $1,300 million U.S. supplemental aid appropriation for Colombia, he said, coupled with the Colombian government's comprehensive anti-drug strategy, is making headway against the illicit drug traffickers there.

But he warned that "the enormous tasks before the Colombian government and its friends and supporters worldwide ... will require sustainability in terms of the government of Colombia's policies and [those of] its allies."

Romero listed Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Haiti as democracies that "remain vulnerable" and said "they will need all of the support the hemisphere can muster." Democracies, he noted, "are much more than elections." They must have stable institutions, he argued, as well as effective judiciaries that enforce the rule of law.

Haiti, he said, "remains a big challenge." He noted that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has made eight commitments towards democratization in a letter to President Clinton. "We will hold him accountable," Romero said.

"We are very dissatisfied" with the persistence of political intimidation in Haiti, Romero told the journalists, and read a press release to that effect released January 11 by the State Department.

Warning that the success of the upcoming elections in Peru is "not a foregone conclusion," he noted that the State Department is spending $7 million dollars in democracy-building activities in support of new elections there.

On Ecuador's progress, he said, "we believe that democratic institutions and the rule of law have been strengthened" in the past year "and that was very much a hemispheric effort."

As for Paraguay, he said, "our efforts to preserve democracy have turned out exceedingly well in collaboration with Argentina and Brazil."

Regarding Mexico, he said that the election of President Vicente Fox brings "great promise and opportunity" for continued political and social reforms and potentially "greater integration of the Mexican economy into the U.S. economy."

According to Romero, "there already exists a good relationship" between Fox and U.S. President-elect George W. Bush on counter-drug cooperation. "I believe there is every intention on both sides of the border to build on that relationship," he said.

Turning to Cuba, he cited "people-to-people" contacts between U.S. citizens and Cuban citizens as "an effort to break through the isolation felt by the Cuban people." The resolution passed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva "excoriating Fidel Castro's abysmal record on human rights and civil liberties has also engendered a greater European involvement in pressing for human rights in Cuba," Romero said.

As for Venezuela, he said that U.S. officials "maintain a productive relationship with the government of Venezuela," and that Venezuelan policies on energy "have helped in the international fora." Despite disagreements in some areas, he said, "in general, I would characterize the relationship [between the United States and Venezuela] as a positive one."