|
|
|
|
|
|||
newsAlso in this section: Martín goes to Washington by Eric Jackson, mostly from other media On April 28 Martín Torrijos became the first Latin American president to set foot in the White House during the second Bush administration. The visit came at a difficult moment for US policy in the Americas, and went without any major announcements. From the official accounts, it appeared to be mainly an exercise in schmoozing, although beyond the talk of good chemistry between the two heads of states it was also said that there was talk about trade, Panama's management of the canal and its hopes to widen it, and bilateral cooperation on the matters of terrorism and drug trafficking. Those latter two themes, when evoked with respect to Panama, are often code words for whether and to what extent this country is cooperating with the US-backed Plan Colombia. The Torrijos administration has been silent on this theme, as contrasted with the Moscoso administration, which while it always claimed that Plan Colombia had nothing to do with Panama did very little to hide its support for the AUC paramilitaries and Colombian Army in our neighbors' long-running civil conflict, even to the point of jailing a man for giving warning of an AUC death squad attack on a Darien village. It is thought that Torrijos has backed away from that position and taken a more neutral and traditionally Panamanian stance on the Colombian conflict, but there has been no specific public discussion about it. US military training of Panamanian police officers headed toward duty along the Colombian border has been ongoing at the former Fort Sherman and other national parks, and Panama City is still a favorite destination for off-duty American soldiers and mercenaries who have a few days off from Plan Colombia. The United States, which has a treaty commitment to defend the canal, has also been concerned about the possibility of an attack on the waterway, and since the events of September 11, 2001 American advisors have assisted in making improvements to the canal's security. Panama's biggest role in the worldwide hunt for Osama bin Laden and his followers, however, has been one of vigilance for al Qaeda money laundering activities. There is also apparently a certain amount of Panamanian sharing of information about shipping and sailors in order to keep Osama's boys from sneaking into the United States as members of ships' crews and especially to keep floating bombs out of US harbors. On the canal expansion issue, there probably wasn't much for Bush and Torrijos to discuss. First, the administration says that studies are still underway so there is no canal expansion plan to reveal at the moment, to the Americans or anybody else. Moreover, in the preliminary hype the ACP and Torrijos administration are saying that the improvements to the canal would be self-financed, which would preclude a request for US loans. But many other countries have offered help with the financing, and it may be of some geopolitical importance to the US government that real or potential geopolitical rivals like the Peoples Republic of China don't acquire a major interest in the canal by way of a large purchases of canal expansion bonds. And according to reports in the English-language Taipei Times, the China issue did come up during Martín's visit to Washington. The daily reported that Torrijos sounded out the Americans about their views on the possibility of Panama dropping its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in order to normalize relations with mainland China. However, neither the US nor Panamanian governments had anything to say about this subject. The White House acknowledged that the stalled talks for a US-Panama Free Trade Agreement did come up during the lunch meeting, and although both sides said they are committed to a successful conclusion of these talks no date was announced for new negotiations. At the moment CAFTA, a free trade pact between Washington and several Central American countries, is hanging in limbo with the prospect of a bruising congressional ratification process facing it. Bush probably has the votes to get CAFTA approved, but their are American conservatives who oppose it because their sense of economic nationalism is offended and most Democrats, particularly those closest to organized labor, are also likely to vote against it. If CAFTA doesn't get past Congress then other US free trade initiatives in the hemisphere are likely to become dead letters while Bush is still president, but what's more likely is that CAFTA will be ratified by a narrow margin and then afterwards talks between Panama and the United States, which had broken down mainly over agricultural disagreements, will resume. One of the things that the Torrijos administration did in Washington was to consult with a new lobbyist, Raúl Romero, who is a US citizen of Panamanian origins and a close friend and campaign advisor of George W. Bush. Romero's Alliance Consulting Group (ACG) lobbying firm, whose office is about a block from the White House, registered as Panama's agent in late March. In fact the White House lunch was but one brief stop in a busy schedule of meetings, not just for the president but also for First Lady Vivian de Torrijos, Foreign Minister and Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro, Government and Justice Minister Héctor Alemán, Economy and Finance Minister Ricaurte Vásquez, Commerce and Industry Minister Alejandro Ferrer, Minister of the Presidency Ubaldino Real and presidential aide Luis Melo. Everybody in the Panamanian entourage had his or her schedule of meetings and events, and in addition to the White House lunch President Torrijos spoke to the OAS, dined with the top officials of the Smithsonian Institution, talked business and technological development with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, met Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar, spoke to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and had lunch with the president of the Inter-American Development Bank. While all this was going on, US policy toward the Americas was somewhat in disarray. Bush's preferred far-right Salvadoran candidate for OAS secretary general had been forced out of the race some weeks before, and then when the Americans backed the Luis Ernesto Derbez, the Mexican alternative to Chile's José Miguel Insulza, five rounds of voting left the race in a 17-all deadlock. While Torrijos was in Washington Derbez pulled out of the race, effectively leaving the OAS leadership to the man Bush tried to block and the United States in a weaker than ever position within the organization. In the week prior to the Insulza's victory, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited several Latin American countries and everywhere she went reporters and public officials wanted to talk about her belligerent attitude toward Venezuela, something she found surprising and exasperating. Meanwhile Torrijos went into the meetings with several other foreign policy initiatives underway that leave him in a position to more than just hear what the Americans are offering for Panama's acceptance or rejection. While he was in Washington the formalities needed to transform the Group of Three --- Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela --- into a Group of Four that includes Panama were advancing. Also in progress was Panama's application to join MERCOSUR, the regional trade bloc based in South America's southern cone that is growing into an alternative to the NAFTA model for an eventual Free Trade Area of the Americas. It was said that the Aggie and the former governor of Texas, now the respective heads of states of their two countries, got along famously at lunch, that Washington believes it has a Panamanian president it can trust, and the Torrijos administration thinks it has a good relationship with the Americans. But if diplomacy depends as least as much on the circumstances of the times as it does the qualities and intentions of those who practice it, then the realities are in many ways favorable to Panama. The United States is preoccupied with a war in Iraq that its leaders did not expect, and now with the prospect of two nuclear-armed members of what Bush described as an "Axis of Evil." The Americans don't have the votes to continue their domination of the OAS, and the rich countries don't have the votes to control the current round of WTO talks. Despite some occasionally strident rhetoric coming from some people in the US government and Bush's own global "you're with us or against us" line in the sand, Panama finds itself in circumstances with various options, and thus room for diplomatic maneuver. No wonder Martín Torrijos came back from Washington with a smile on his face.
Also in this section:
News |
Business |
Editorial |
Opinion |
Letters |
Arts
|
Review |
Community |
Fun
|
Travel |
|||||||||
|
