csmonitor | Mitt Romney’s single mention of Latin America last night, calling it a
“huge opportunity" for the United States, generated immediate glee from
Latin Americanists across Twitter – but the hemisphere got no nod from
President Obama, and then both went silent on the topic.
Given that the final presidential debate Monday evening was dominated
by the Middle East and terrorism, most of the world was left out by
President Obama and Mr. Romney. That includes the whole of Europe and
its debt crisis. India. South Africa. And not a single mention of any
country in Latin America or the Caribbean: neither Cuba specifically,
Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, nor Peru. (Read a transcript here.)
That
means no candidate talked about the drug trade, despite historic
violence playing out in Mexico, much of it along the 2,000-mile border
that the US shares. They did not talk about energy policy in the
Americas. Or the economies of Brazil and Mexico.
The debate opened with promise for Latin America – with moderator Bob
Schieffer referring to the 50th anniversary of the disclosure that the
Soviet Union had missiles in Cuba. But he did not pose a question about
it or anything else in the region, which observers say was a clear
missed opportunity – even if hardly surprising.
“In a broader
foreign policy context, we have to begin to mainstream the Americas,”
says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a
consultancy based in New York. “Brazil is an important international
player, not just a Latin American player.… Latin America is of rising
importance in the world, [we should have been hearing how the
candidates] would work with Brazils, and Mexicos, and Colombias.”
Romney
mentioned Latin America in the context of how to boost employment at
home. “Trade grows about 12 percent year. It doubles about every – every
five or so years. We can do better than that, particularly in Latin
America,” he said. “The opportunities for us in Latin America we have
just not taken advantage of fully. As a matter of fact, Latin America's
economy is almost as big as the economy of China. We're all focused on
China. Latin America is a huge opportunity for us – time zone, language
opportunities.”
But Obama did not respond. And the only other mention of the region
came once again from Romney, who mentioned Venezuela’s President Hugo
Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro as part of a list of the world’s “worst
actors” whom Obama has failed to meet with, he said, despite promises to
do so.
Obama has remained popular across Latin America and is favored among Hispanic voters in the US.
But some of that support abroad has slipped. In a Pew poll released in
June, 39 percent of Mexicans said they approved of Obama’s international
policies. That fell from 56 percent in 2009. (Here is the poll.)
Much
of that slide could be pegged to record deportations of undocumented
immigrants under Obama, although in a huge move this year he gave a
reprieve to many undocumented migrants who were brought to the US as
children.
While immigration is the topic that Latin America
perhaps cares most about, few expected the politically charged issue to
feature at the presidential debate. Still, there was hope that the
growing role that places such as Brazil and Colombia play in the energy
sector would be mentioned. And if nothing else, the drug-fueled violence
plaguing Mexico and Central America right now.
Mexican journalist
Leon Krauze wrote in a widely shared Tweet: “Mexico, a country facing
100,000 deaths, neighbor to the United States, didn't deserve one single
mention tonight. A disgrace.”
