Andres Oppenheimer: Obama's Big Opportunity in Latin America Andres Oppenheimer - Miami Herald
go to original December 13, 2015

The U.S. president should visit Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico early in 2016 (Ann Heisenfelt/AP)

President Barack Obama has never been terribly interested in Latin America, but the new political winds in Argentina, Venezuela and the latest events in Brazil offer him a golden opportunity to improve U.S. relations with the region.

Last week’s inauguration of center-right President Mauricio Macri in Argentina after 12 years of leftist anti-American governments, alongside the landslide opposition victory in Venezuela’s Dec. 6 legislative elections have changed South America’s political map. Venezuela’s “Bolivarian” revolution and its political allies are now on the defensive, after more than a decade of dominating the region’s political agenda.

And Brazil, which until now was an unconditional ally of Venezuela, is gradually shifting away from its leftist foreign policy.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing an impeachment in Congress, and badly needs the support from legislators who are critical of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s abuses. The last thing she wants is to further antagonize the very members of congress whose votes may decide whether she stays in office.

Amid this backdrop, Obama should make a trip to Latin America in the first half of 2016, and offer U.S. support to Macri and other presidents, while seeking to counter-balance China’s growing influence in the region.

Granted, Obama will be a lame-duck president next year, but he could do a lot to improve U.S.-Latin America ties. Former President George W. Bush made a visit to five countries in the region near the end of his second term in 2007, which helped solve pending problems with several of them.

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