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Andres Oppenheimer
For the past two years, the Obama administration has managed to keep its Latin American policy largely out of the headlines, focusing its energies on Iraq, Afghanistan and other world hot spots. But that's about to change.
There is a consensus in Washington's foreign policy circles that the
Key congressional committees have changed hands, and are now led by Republican foreign policy hawks who have long criticized President Barack Obama for allegedly being too soft on Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez and his allies in the region.
In an interview last week, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, the new chairwoman of the House's powerful Committee on Foreign Affairs, told me that there will be subcommittee hearings and investigations into issues such as Chávez's suspected aid to Middle Eastern terrorist groups and his links to Iran's secret nuclear weapons program.
"It will be good for congressional subcommittees to start talking about Chávez, about (Bolivian President Evo) Morales, about issues that have not been talked about," she said. "We are going to have a discussion about all of these issues."
Ros-Lehtinen, who has scheduled a trip to Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Honduras in March, said that the House subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs is likely to hold hearings on whether to place Venezuela on the
The subcommittee's new chairman, Rep. Connie Mack of Fort Myers, supports the idea. Ros-Lehtinen suggested to me that she doesn't, for practical reasons.
The House is also likely to hold hearings on whether to impose economic sanctions on Venezuela's oil monopoly
Won't these discussions be counterproductive, and give Chávez great ammunition to support his claims that he is a victim of the "U.S. empire," I asked her.
"The United States must have principles. It's very nice to think that one can be friends of the entire world, but if we do that, we don't have principles," she said. She added that Chávez and his allies are going to blame the United States for everything anyway, regardless of what Washington does.
Ros-Lehtinen will not be the only new powerful voice in
"They will start asking questions, and they will make a difference," says Roger Noriega, who was head of the
Obama supporters concede that the new
"Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has already said that she wants to cut the
In addition, the new Republican congressional leaders' "negative rhetoric" will hurt the U.S. image in the region, which "could result in a weakening of the kind of support we need to pursue our interests," Davidow said.
My opinion: I'm afraid that extreme rhetoric from
The good news is that Ros-Lehtinen is sounding more judicious -- even more moderate -- since her appointment to her new role, not only on Venezuela but also on foreign aid and other Latin American issues. In addition, the Democratic-led
Whatever happens, there will be a lot more noise about Latin America in Washington than over the past two years.
Available at Amazon.com:
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
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World - New Congress to Push Obama on Latin America | Global Viewpoint