Voices of Mexico no. 70

Our Voice

The United States will probably have to pay attention to emerging issues that it does not consider a priority for expanding its agenda for the doctrine of preventive policy, the backbone of its foreign policy in the Bush administration's last period. Everything is prepared for the compact group headed up by Bush himself and reinforced with Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State to once again take office. It is also a group that wants to consolidate the so-called hard U.S. power, which is why it maintains Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense since he has made a good team with Rice and Vice-President Cheney, a virtuous combination of renovating realists and neo-conservative hawks who casually aim to gather all the world's power for themselves.

In that context, what does it mean when other actors, like the South American countries who met at the Third South American Presidential Summit in Cuzco on December 8, mobilize, taking advantage of the transitional moment in the United States as well as Washington's apparent lack of interest in their plans and attempts at regional integration? Given the paralysis of the projects for Latin American cohesion, is it mere chance that two important Latin American actors like Mexico and Chile are both trying to field candidates for general secretary of the Orga ni zation of American States (OAS), or that Brazil has begun to seek a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council?