Verbatim, as delivered

March 11, 2009

Opening Statement by Chairman Berman at hearing, “The Summit of the Americas: A New Beginning for US Policy in the Region?”

From a foreign policy perspective, we live in a quiet neighborhood. By and large, the countries of our region enjoy a shared set of values. With one notable exception, the Western hemisphere is made up of elected democracies.

Of our three biggest trading partners, two are on our border. Of our four biggest oil suppliers, three live close by. Our economies are inextricably intertwined and growing more so every day. Remittance flows from the U.S. to the region reached $54 billion in 2007.

Culturally and socially, the region enriches the diversity of the United States every day and in every way. We are today one of the biggest Spanish-speaking nations in the world.

About a decade ago, at the tail end of the Clinton administration, we set out on a path of inattention to our neighborhood and its problems. Here and there we teased the region by proclaiming, as President Bush did in 2000, that the Americas would be a “fundamental commitment” of his presidency.

But then grave problems appeared elsewhere And by the end of the Bush administration, our influence and standing in our comparatively quiet neighborhood was as poor as it has ever been.

After spending the 90s doing our best to promote and institutionalize democracy and the rule of law, we tacitly endorsed a coup in Venezuela.

After 9-11, when we should have enlisted our neighborhood friends in a methodical and joint counter-terrorism plan, we instead ham-handedly lectured a region that had known terrorism for far longer than we had.

With our country’s insatiable appetite for illegal drugs, we fueled a regional drug trade and its attendant violence that is today eating away at the institutions of the region’s governments.

And then we spent billions of dollars on a heavy-handed and ineffectual counter-drug policy that we left on auto-pilot years ago. Drug flows have changed little and our emphasis on forced eradication at the expense of harm reduction has made us few friends.

We aggressively extolled the virtues of trade, and then we played hard to get.

And last year, in a region in which our past military involvement should cause us to move with exceeding caution, we reestablished after 60 years in mothballs a largely symbolic Fourth Fleet. After the fact, we explained to our concerned neighbors that it was merely an internal Pentagon matter.

On April 17th, President Obama will try to change this regional dynamic when he joins other regional leaders for the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

The good bet is that he will be welcomed with open arms, especially given the fine preparation work of the Summit hosts and our Caribbean friends. But expectations are high. Perhaps too high.

There are many questions to resolve: What can the U.S. deliver at the Summit or in the near term to begin to repair our relationship? Should we walk in with a plan, or do we simply listen? Are we putting in the right people to fix this? Should we bring back the Special Envoy for the Americas?

While our gaze was focused elsewhere, the region created a network of groups and subgroups with one common characteristic: The United States was not invited to any of them.

The premier regional political organization in which we do have permanent membership, the Organization of American States (OAS), is struggling. How can we make the OAS part of the solution?

Although I have no intention of making this a hearing about our policy toward Cuba, we would be remiss if we did not try to understand better how our Cuba policy plays in the bigger regional relationship.

Bolivia’s Morales just announced he’s throwing out another one of our diplomats; last year he expelled our Ambassador and the Drug Enforcement Agency;

Nicaragua’s Ortega has spent two years in office confounding even the most charitable reading of his governance;

And Venezuela’s Chavez, with his most recent verbal tirade against President Obama, has proven it was not just all about Bush. Are we condemned in the medium term to a cycle of unfriendliness with these countries?

And is there any new thinking at all about Haiti and its epic problems?

With President Lula’s visit days away, we are properly putting effort into our relationship with regional leader, Brazil. Can Brazil help us with some of the tough issues on our plate? Does Brazil even want to?

And finally, there’s Mexico. President Calderon is among our best allies in the region, but a proven and solid relationship does not in itself resolve the big issues that we need to tackle together. It’s only the starting point.

Ronald Reagan once said that “status quo” is Latin for “the mess that we’re in.” I would add that that status quo ante for our relations with our neighbors may well just be “the mess that we were in.”

We have a unique voice in this region, and we need to reestablish leadership on the positive things we believe in. But gone are the days when our influence or authority permitted us to raise our voice and get our way. It was easier, but as we look forward it is neither possible nor wise.

And, let’s just say it: Building a wall on our southern border is not going to make any of the big problems to the south go away.

Yes, it’s great to be able to come home to our quiet neighborhood. But while we were away, things have changed. I think that’s what we should have a conversation about that today.