Another Post about a Somewhat Dated Piece

Philip Brenner and Saul Landau have authored a piece suggesting that Obama could mark a new era of the US government's Latin America policy by holding a mock funeral for the Monroe Doctrine. This is like apologizing profusely for a horrible insult that you delivered in grade school. If you're still a jerk, it doesn't really matter that you are apologizing for this single act, because you've done a million other things since then that merit anger. And if you aren't still a jerk, then it doesn't really matter to start off with, because it was so long ago.

I suppose a ceremony interring the Monroe Doctrine couldn't do much harm (I don't think the possible outcry from hard-right Latin Americanists would be worth more than a moment's consideration), but what good would it do? The target audience for such an act would be the small minority of Latin Americans who are still hung up on the Doctrine, but such a group's grievances go far beyond the policy implemented nearly 200 years ago (although it was invoked under the Roosevelt Corollary repeatedly in the twentieth century, up until the mid-1960s). Unless the fake funeral was coupled with a very visible reversal of the more recent iterations of heavy-handed and hypocritical American policy in Latin America, it would be seen as a cynical ploy. At the same time, if Obama were to step away from said heavy-handedness and hypocrisy --say, by deporting Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela or unilaterally lifting the Cuba embargo-- than the present status of the Monroe Doctrine would immediately become moot.

The same calculus applies even more so for the far larger group of Latin Americans whose lack of love for the US isn't due to lingering anger over the Monroe Doctrine, but rather modern frustrations like strict immigration restrictions and their zealous enforcement, the Iraq war, support for Chávez's ousters, et cetera. Without addressing the proximate causes of resentment of the US, declarations about policies implemented close to 40 administrations ago won't have much impact.

(Thanks Alterdestiny.)