Countering the New Autocrat’s ManualBy John Feeley, Scott Hamilton, and Douglas Farah - January 6, 2023
President
Biden’s senior foreign policy leaders have recently made statements
attesting to their pragmatic ambivalence regarding the ideological
orientation of Latin American governments. In practice, however, U.S.
policy still reflects a politicized, outdated left vs. right emphasis
derived from the polarized nature of U.S. domestic politics. Instead, we
suggest a depoliticized lens would afford the United States more room
to be consistent, nuanced, and effective in its foreign policy with the
region, supporting struggling democracies and seeking the sustainable
democratic evolution of incipient criminalized states.
The
regional situation continues to deteriorate because democratically
elected governments strain to deliver basic services to their peoples.
Complicating this in many cases is direct state participation with
Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) that have moved beyond the
radical, populist Bolivarian movement to governments across the
political spectrum. This metastasized movement generates billions of
dollars in corrupt proceeds and has spawned a continent-wide
authoritarian tendency that entrenches itself while corroding democratic
competitors.
A viable U.S. strategy in Latin America and the
Caribbean, encompassing governments ranging from struggling democracies
to fully-fledged autocracies, should involve the following elements:
An
overarching goal to strengthen or reestablish rule of law and
independent democratic institutions in all countries in the region.
Clear, achievable state-to-state national security objectives on at least three topics: migration, crime, and public health.
Strong
U.S. diplomatic presence from all relevant U.S. agencies, but with a
renewed, Presidential-level emphasis on the Chief of Mission Authority
to minimize intelligence agencies or Justice Department freelancing.
Credible assessments of in-country agencies and officials with whom the United States can constructively engage.
Targeting criminal networks with coordinated RICO-like judicial action.
Collaboration with like-minded country partners.
Implementing
a “people-centric” approach that aims to provide information,
education, and relevant training to government officials and civil
society actors in ways that are consistent with either (1) specific U.S.
national security goals and/or (2) U.S. rule of law/democratic
institutions strategic goals.
The following categories of people-centric engagement would be relevant:
Diplomatic:
The United States should be present everywhere in the region and offer
unyielding public support for liberty, even at the expense of awkward
relations with the host government.
Information: The United
States should facilitate the regular provision of unrestricted internet
access and reinvigorate its use of cultural diplomacy.
Military:
The United States makes many mistakes when deploying the military as an
instrument of power; this tool of state-state engagement should
therefore be largely humanitarian (such as hospital ships) or reflect
other soft power approaches.
Economic: The United States should
bypass the often-stultified local elite business cartels and instead
seek to train and empower a new young business class that would agitate
for economic liberalization and other necessary change.
It is
long past time that U.S. policy ceases to be performative, valuing
public denunciations and serial, selective individual sanctions over a
strategy that fortifies elected democracies and employs organized,
coordinated steps to bring down criminal networks. We offer this
assessment to spark what we hope will be a spirited exchange that
clarifies constructive options for U.S. policy in the region.
This submission represents the executive summary of a longer, full-length report. Click
here
to read the report in its entirety. The opinions and analysis enclosed
are those of the authors, and does not represent the institutional
position of any of their respective organizations nor of Global
Americans.