WESTERN HEMISPHERE
U.S. should speak up for democracy in the region
BY ERIC FARNSWORTH
efarnsworth@as-coa.org
Democracy is not a fragile flower, as Ronald Reagan told the British
Parliament 30 years ago, but it does require tending. What was true in
Eastern Europe in the 1980's and also the Middle East in the aftermath
of the Arab Spring is equally true in the Americas, where democracy has
been the norm for a generation.
Despite this, leaders of countries including Venezuela, Ecuador,
Bolivia, and Nicaragua are working to have Cuba's Raúl Castro invited to
the next Summit of the Americas in Colombia. If he is not, they are
threatening to boycott the summit.
Now is when the steady voice of the United States in conjunction with
other like-minded hemispheric nations is critically needed to tend the
democratic garden in the Americas. Washington should embrace this
manufactured crisis in order to stand for the fundamental point —
enshrined by the Inter-American Democratic Charter signed by all
hemispheric governments attending the 2001 summit — that representative
democracy is an expectation for full participation in hemispheric
affairs and that true democracy requires more than an election from time
to time; it also includes respect for fundamental freedoms.
Aspects of regional democracy have arguably deteriorated in the 10 years
that the democracy charter has been in force. The charter was conceived
to respond to earlier threats to democracy in the region, primarily
military coups. But now the principal threat comes from leaders who seek
to concentrate power in their own hands by weakening democratic
institutions.
In some nations, press freedoms are under attack. Electoral manipulation
is re-emerging as a problem and independent, impartial election monitors
are the targets of abuse and obfuscation. Corruption continues to
challenge state institutions. Rule of law is uncertain. Even the
inter-American human rights apparatus is under assault.
The United States has largely muted the concerns it has had about
threats to regional democracy for some time, fearing not without reason
that overtly raising these issues serves only to isolate Washington in
the hemisphere. Without the United States taking the lead, however,
other nations are disinclined to raise their own voices, to the extent
they even view these issues in the same way.
Having just traveled to Cuba where she reviewed a Cuban honor guard, for
example, Brazil's president spoke only of democracy and human rights in
the context of the U.S. presence at Guantánamo. For its part, the
Organization of American States is subject to the consensus of its
member states which sharply disagree on these issues.
The countries attempting to make Cuba the issue at the summit are
working to undercut the key pillar upholding the hemispheric agenda,
simultaneously diverting attention from their own deficits of democracy,
while complicating the politics surrounding a summit hosted by a close
friend of the United States. They should be called out. If they decide
to protest by boycotting the summit, that is their prerogative.
Voluntarily staying away from the summit would remove rejectionists,
allowing the remaining nations to get on with the business at hand.
At the same time, the announcement of economic reforms by Raúl Castro's
government is changing the narrative, slowly but surely, and this is
likely to increase calls from the region for changes to U.S. policy.
Much like the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, Castro is engaged in
his own perestroika not to end the revolution but to save it. Creative
diplomacy including the upcoming papal trip to Cuba in March would put
the onus back where it belongs — on Havana not Washington, on true
political freedoms not tepid economic reforms.
The United States should be clear well in advance of the summit:
Economic reforms may be underway, but until Castro is willing to tear
down the wall of oppression by releasing political prisoners, allowing
Cuban citizens including blogger Yoani Sánchez to leave the island
voluntarily, releasing American Alan Gross, freeing the practice of
religion, and taking other measures consistent with broader democratic
values and personal freedoms, there can be no seat at the table set for
democratically-elected leaders.
Democratic principles may sometimes be difficult or unpopular to defend,
but in Latin America, as elsewhere, they are precious and well worth the
fight.
Eric Farnsworth is vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the
Americas.
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