Hillary Clinton’s ‘Hard Choices’ Retrospective Part Four Chapter 12 Latin America: Democrats and Demagogues

Beginning with a brief history of U.S. Latin American policy from the Cold War to the current administration, Hillary
A.  Cites Clinton administration initiatives:

1. The first Summit of the Americas in 1994,
2. The successful anti-narcotrafficking and anti-guerrilla Plan Colombia,
3. The restoration of the democratically elected Bertrand Aristede to his post in Haiti;

B. Credits the George W. Bush administration for the Merida (anti-drug) initiative and continued support of Plan Colombia, but cites left v. right wing point of view of that  prevented that administration from broadening cooperation with our neighbors to the south;

C. Cites President Obama's promise, in his April 2009 Summit of the Americas speech, of a new "equal partnership" relationship with the region and a fairer Cuba policy.

She does not mention this encounter with Hugo Chavez at that summit, but the picture is priceless.

She choose Mexico as her starting point to implement the new policy.  She was familiar with the border area from her 1972 campaign experiences there. She and her then campaign colleague Bill Clinton had gone south of the border to a beach on a recovery vacation  after the election.

She had fond memories of Mexico, but attacks on consulates in 2008 and 2010, the last with murders involved, indicated the dangers civil servants faced. Her first trip to Mexico as secretary of state was in March 2009.  Patricia Espinosa is one of several strong Latin American women leaders with whom she formed a strong bond.

Hillary Clinton in Mexico with Women Leaders and Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa

March 26, 2009 by still4hill

She doesn't mention this but I shall.  She surprised the rector at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe with an unscheduled visit the morning of her second day there.  He was delighted.  That day she also held a round table with indigenous students from community colleges, visited an industrial plant, and then gave the speech in Monterrey at TecMilenio University that she does refer to in her book.  It was a spectacular two days that we celebrated here.

Hillary Clinton in Mexico Day 2

March 27, 2009 by still4hill

This was the Mexico visit she refers to when President Calderon was furious over the wikileaks and demanded that Ambassador Pascual be replaced - said he could no longer work with him.  She states that Pascual resigned in March 2011.  If anyone tries to tell you that wikileaks caused no damage, be skeptical.  This was only the tip of a very large and damaging iceberg.  Thank heaven Hillary had a great relationship with Patricia Espinosa and with the Mexican people.

Hillary Clinton in Mexico

January 24, 2011 by still4hill

Secretary Clinton’s Remarks With Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa

January 24, 2011 by still4hill

Secretary Clinton’s Interview With Denise Maerker of Televisa

January 25, 2011 by still4hill

Secretary Clinton’s Interview With Rossana Fuentes of CNN en Espanol

January 25, 2011 by still4hill

As a model for Mexico, she suggests Colombia and reviews the Clinton administration effort called Plan Colombia, a joint effort of her husband's administration with then President Pastrana.  The initiative continued and expanded under the Bush administration, but human rights issues arose.  The Obama administration continued the plan but with additional work on governance, education, and development.

Her first visit to Colombia as secretary of state happened to coincide with a visit Bill Clinton was making there.  It was the first time they were together on foreign soil since she had assumed her post.  They actually managed a dinner date and a peaceful evening walk through Bogota.  She remarks on the contrast with the violence of the past.

Bill and Hillary Clinton: The Tryst

June 10, 2010 by still4hill

In her meeting with President Uribe the following day he also comments upon the dramatic security progress in the capital.

Secretary Clinton’s Joint Press Availability with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe

June 10, 2010 by still4hill

This morning, I was saying to some members of the media that were here (inaudible) that the best PR for confidence in Colombia is that last night, the Madam Secretary of State of the United States and the president, Bill Clinton, were in a restaurant in Bogota with complete peace of mind enjoying this beautiful city and its good restaurants. Some years ago, because of terrorism, this would have been unthinkable. Your visit, the fact that you spent the night in Bogota, the frequent visits by President Clinton, those are a great show of confidence in Colombia and the fact that one can have confidence in Colombia.

Uribe was near the end of his term at this point.  His successor, Juan Manuel Santos continued the progress and improvement continues, she states.

Hillary attended the presidential inauguration in El Salvador in June 2009 that dovetailed with the Pathways to Prosperity Ministerial Summit.

Hillary Clinton at the Pathways to Prosperity Ministerial in El Salvador

May 31, 2009 by still4hill

Hillary Clinton Op-Ed: New Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas

June 1, 2009 by still4hill

A model  she suggests for conquering poverty in Latin America is Brazil's conditional cash tranfer programs.  Dating back to the 1990s under President Cardoso and expanded by President Lula da Silva, it transfers cash to parents as a reward for keeping children in school and under proper pediatric supervision.  Lula's successor, Dilma Rousseff was inaugurated on January 1, 2011, and Hillary was happy to be there there.

Secretary Clinton at the Inauguration of Dilma Rousseff

January 1, 2011 by still4hill

She encountered Chavez there again.

She departed El Salvador for Honduras where she attended CARICOM and the OAS Summit.

Hillary Clinton at CARICOM Breakfast

June 2, 2009 by still4hill

There was suspense and high drama at the June 2009 OAS summit.  Several members intended to put forth a resolution to readmit Cuba.  The proponents were the predictable suspects, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, and Mel Zelaya of Honduras was also leaning that way.  More moderate countries like Chile and Brazil were considering approval.  Cuba was not represented at the summit and had expressed no interest.  The concern was that if a vote was called a simple 2/3 majority could and might approve since Cuba was originally excluded based on outdated Cold War standards.
The U.S. strategy involved updating the standards to focus on democracy and human rights and to require that the petition be presented by the Cuban government rather than by proxy.  There was also a timing issue since Hillary was scheduled to fly to Cairo to attend the much-anticipated speech Obama was to deliver there.

The vote was not called before Hillary had to leave, but the U.S. compromise plan did prevail.  Castro reacted by refusing to petition for readmission.

Press Statement: OAS Resolution

June 4, 2009 by still4hill

 In December 2009 the Castro regime arrested USAID worker Alan Grossman.  Hillary says one of her biggest regrets is that she was not able to bring him home.  Before leaving office she recommended reassessing the Cuba embargo and shifting the onus to the Cuban government.

In mid-June, (she does not mention this, but I will)  Hillary slipped in the State Department parking garage and fractured her elbow.   I add this because a subsequent  press briefing refers to it.

Hillary’s Fractured Elbow

June 19, 2009 by still4hill

In late June 2009, just weeks after Hillary had been at OAS in San Pedro Sula, the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya,  was arrested and put, in his pajamas, on a plane to Costa Rica.  His wife and daughters requested refuge at our embassy residence and Hillary ordered that they be kept safe.  The President of the National Congress Roberto Micheletti, assumed power.  U.S. aid was suspended (by law) as was OAS membership.

Hillary Clinton: Situation in Honduras

June 28, 2009 by still4hill

Here she spoke at length about the coup in Honduras.

Hillary Clinton’s Press Briefing After Breaking Her Elbow

June 29, 2009 by still4hill

On July 7, Zelaya made his way to D.C. and visited Hillary at the State Department.  She had recruited Costa Rica's President Óscar Arias to mediate.  Zeleya accepted mediation and from that point all that came before was wiped clean.  It was a new playing field.  Hillary stipulates that she made the announcement alone so as not to appear to Micheletti as if Zelaya was being favored.

Hillary Clinton: Remarks at the Top of the Daily Press Briefing

July 7, 2009 by still4hill

Zelaya remained in exile.  Arias was encountering a hard line on both sides and was in favor of restoring Zelaya to power based on principles.   Allowing the de facto government to stay would, he said,  have a domino effect across the region.

In September, Zelaya returned to the State Department.  There were no remarks or press briefings, only this photo.  Immediately afterwards he turned up at the Brazilian Embassy in San Pedro Sula.

At the end of October a unity agreement was in place.  The Honduran Congress voted not to restore Zelaya.  He went to the Dominican Republic.  November elections were held and Porfirio Lobo was elected.  Many OAS countries disagreed with this solution, but in May 2011 Honduras was readmitted.

Hillary Clinton Hails Return of Honduras to OAS

May 23, 2011 by still4hill

It was, Hillary notes, the first time in Central American history that a coup was resolved democratically.  She concludes that the trend in Latin American is toward democracy, shared opportunities, positive partnerships, and innovation.

Last Dance?

While Secretary Clinton kicked back (deservedly) at a salsa bar ironically named "Havana,"  word here was that this might be the last time the U.S. participates in the Summit of the Americas due to disagreement among member nations over the inclusion of Cuba.

SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Public Schedule for April 15, 2012

Public Schedule for April 15, 2012
Public Schedule
Washington, DC
April 15, 2012

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SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Secretary Clinton is on foreign travel in Cartagena, Colombia. Secretary Clinton is accompanied by Under Secretary Otero, Assistant Secretary Fernandez, Assistant Secretary Jacobson, Ambassador Marshall, Ambassador Pascual, Ambassador Verveer, Spokesperson Nuland, and Director Sullivan. Please click here for more information.
AM – PM LOCAL Secretary Clinton joins President Obama for events in Cartagena, Colombia.

Hillary Clinton at Cartagena CEO Summit

Remarks at the Launch of "Connect 2022" Initiative at CEO Summit

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Cartagena, Colombia

April 13, 2012

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 SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much. There will be a lot of important aspects of this Summit of the Americas, but I think there will be none more important than this first-ever CEO Summit of the Americas, and in particular this initiative that Minister Cardenas just was describing, to connect our hemisphere. I wish to thank the Minister Andres Gluski, Luis Alberto Moreno, and Luis Carlos Villegas for their leadership in pulling this together. Let me also recognize the World Bank and the Organization of American States for their support of the Connecting the Americas 2022 initiative that we are highlighting today.
Virtually every issue that we discuss at this summit, from fighting poverty to preventing and responding to disasters to improving physical safety, security for our citizens requires support from the private sector. So we need your ideas, your perspectives, and, yes, your resources. We need to hear from you and we need to work with you. I am very grateful that Colombia has included this summit in the agenda for the overall summit, and I thank all of you for being part of it. And I also wish to thank President Martinelli for being here with us.
I appreciated Mauricio’s showing that cookstove, that pot cooking on the burning wood because he’s absolutely right. This is one of the solvable problems that we face in the world today, and I have been pushing the global alliance for clean cookstoves, because it is a triple winner. It slows down and, hopefully, even ends the environmental degradation, the erosion that comes from the cutting down of trees and using charcoal for fuel for cooking. It improves the health of women and children in particular. The respiratory disease rate is very high, and the death rate of two million worldwide every year, is absolutely unacceptable. And it also provides a greater danger for the children, and particularly the women, who go on these mile-long hunts everyday to find fuel, whether it is wood or dung or some other form of bio-mass.
So through the Global Alliance, which I’m proud to say Colombia is a member, we’re working to promote clean, affordable cookstoves, new fuels, in order to avoid the image that we saw on the big screen. There is no doubt that connecting up this hemisphere and making progress on the provision of electricity, not only to the 30 million who lack it, but also, as you heard the minister describe, making it possible for us to be bound more closely together throughout the hemisphere.
Now in the last few years, the countries of this hemisphere have made a major push to bring electricity to those places where it is still in short supply. As a result, 93 percent of the people in the Americas now have access. That’s better than the global rate. But despite that, this persistent gap remains. And for those 30 million-plus, electricity is still out of reach. And for hundreds of millions more, the supply of electric power is unreliable and too expensive.
Just think about what we would do, those of us lucky enough to be in this room at this meeting, if we could not count on a reliable, affordable electricity supply. In places where there is none, the streets are dark at night, children can’t really study, hospitals find it difficult to provide care, businesses and factories can’t operate. Life is more expensive, less healthy, less safe, and frankly, holds less potential. Without electricity in today’s world, there is a limit to how far people’s hard work and abilities can carry them and how advanced their economic prospects can become.
So we need to make a mission out of this connection goal. The Connecting the Americas 2022 campaign aims to give every person the sustainable energy they need at a price they can afford, so they can live their lives, do their work, educate their children. We’ve set ourselves a deadline of 10 years. We know it won’t be easy. Those 30 million-plus who are not yet able to access electricity are the hardest to reach. Otherwise, companies like some of those represented here would’ve already gotten them power long ago.
So we need to expand power grids, develop effective off-grid solutions to reach remote communities, and more broadly, modernize the power infrastructure throughout the hemisphere. So not only can we can make power more affordable, reliable, and efficient, but we can make it more economically viable to add renewable energy to the mix. We know that there are some Caribbean countries that are totally dependent on imported oil and diesel, these beautiful places that are paying much too much for the least clean and, certainly, nonrenewable form of energy.
So everybody needs to come together here and pull in the same direction. This is an economic opportunity. Closing the electricity gap will allow millions more to join the digital and global economy. It will create more jobs. It will connect businesses to new markets. It will allow millions of women to stop spending so much of their time collecting fuel so they can focus on those aspects of their lives, like educating their children or pursuing even profitable market activities that will add to the family income. It will reduce inequality, it will broaden opportunity, and yes, it will strengthen our democracies. If we modernize our energy infrastructure and link our power systems and implement cutting-edge smart grid and power storage technologies and deploy more renewable energy, we will all benefit from cheaper, more reliable power that causes less harm for the environment.
Now during the next decade, it is predicted that our region will need to increase our capacity to generate power by 26 percent just to keep up with our projected economic growth. So we need to start now to lay the groundwork to attract future investment and secure long-term prosperity.
Energy transformation is already underway. Every country in the Americas is using more renewable energy. Several countries have already connected their power systems, resulting in fewer blackouts, and now they’re working on how to expand those links.
The United States is providing financial and technical support through the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, which President Obama launched at the last Summit in 2009. And I’m pleased to announce today we will increase our support. In addition to helping nations across the hemisphere use smart grid and renewable energy technology, we’ve been working with Central American nations to address the market and regulatory barriers that impede energy trade as they near the completion of the SIEPAC line linking six Central American nations. Now, we and our partners need to increase our focus on the policy frameworks that are required to connect power grids from Mexico all the way to Colombia, as well as the parallel effort now underway in the Andes which will one day reach Chile. Our ultimate goal is an interconnected power grid that stretches from Canada in the north down to the southern tip of our hemisphere, as well as into the Caribbean.
The United States has also funded studies to explore the feasibility of underwater energy connections in the Caribbean. And we will increase our technical assistance, because if Caribbean islands like Dominica and Saint Kitts and Nevis can link to each other through underwater cables, they can begin to build a market large enough to make it economically viable to develop their own renewable energy resources, which means they then can reduce their dependence on imported oil which now comprise about a hundred percent of their energy.

Now I’m well aware that this is going to take political and economic resources and will. But I urge everyone here to embrace this goal. It’s a mission, not only for public officials or energy experts, but really for all of our communities and citizens. So let’s take the advantage of this summit in Cartagena to start an energized, focused campaign to connect the Americas. And let’s not quit until we achieve that goal.
People will look back in a decade to this CEO summit, to this commitment by the leaders, having this on the agenda for the Summit of the Americas, and really be able to say it made a difference; that political and private sector leadership came together to make it a goal to improve the lives and increase the economic opportunities throughout the hemisphere.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)