COMMENTARY Latin America's inability if not refusal to make its law enforcement more 21st-century has only helped open the door to Trump's use of 20th-century-style military intervention in the region.
Why does the Trump administration think the U.S. can treat Latin America in the 21st century the way the U.S. treated Latin America in the 20th century?
Maybe it’s because Latin America keeps giving us the impression it still resides in the 20th century — especially when it comes to law enforcement.
Exhibit A: this Sunday’s presidential election in Chile.
We used to think of Chile as a nation — the nation — that would show Latin America the way to the 21st century.
Chile might not have been as culturally wealthy as bossa nova Brazil or mariachi Mexico. But politically, economically, socially? It was behind the wheel of a brand new OECD-issued hybrid SUV on the road to Developland.
But after a decade of dysfunction — polarization, stagnation, agitation and now burgeoning crime — Chile seems to be driving the same 1984 Dodge Caravan the rest of Latin America hasn’t traded in yet.
And the retro front-runners in this weekend’s presidential race are distressing reminders.
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Leading most voter polls is leftist Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party. Close behind her is right-wing extremist José Antonio Kast of the reactionary Republican Party.
Trailing in the distance is, well, any candidate who might represent a more modern, moderate center.
Chile, in fact, has seen two recent attempts at adopting a new constitution fail because the first draft was too liberal and the second was too conservative.
The country, as a result, remains stuck with a 1980 charter written under fascist military dictator Augusto Pinochet, one of Latin American history’s most monstrous tyrants — who came to power by overthrowing one of the continent’s most disastrous lefties, Salvador Allende.
So, what sort of response is Latin America offering that could make Trump reconsider his martial campaign there? Bring back Gran Colombia!
But Chile isn’t this week’s only showcase of regional reversion.
While hosting a summit of Latin American and European leaders, leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro returned not just to the 20th but 19th century: he called for the revival of Gran Colombia.
That was the republic formed by South American independence hero Simón Bolívar that included what are today Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and parts of Peru and Brazil.
Gran Colombia lasted only 12 years before breaking up in 1831 — and it was a harbinger of Latin America’s chronic balkanization and ungovernability.
But to Latin myth-mongers like Petro, himself a 20th-century guerrilla, it was a utopian counter-force to U.S. imperialism.
Meaning, to the sort of throwback yanqui interventionism Petro and other Latin American leaders see President Donald Trump heaping on the hemisphere right now.
Terrorist combatants
Trump’s deployed a massive show of military might in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, meant to destroy suspected drug-trafficking boats and kill the alleged traffickers — and perhaps oust Venezuela’s alleged top trafficker, President-Dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Many, including myself, have raised the alarm that the U.S. is violating international law by using deadly military strikes instead of law enforcement protocol on civilian criminals — even if it is calling drug gangsters “terrorist combatants” now.
I’ve also warned that a regime-change operation in Venezuela could land the U.S. in an Iraq-style nation-building quagmire.
At the same time, though, you can hear the MAGA White House arguing that if Latin American law enforcement wasn’t so incorrigibly ineffective — Petro’s glaring failure to rein in Colombia’s narco-cartels being a prime example — the U.S. wouldn’t see so much cocaine and fentanyl flooding and destroying U.S. communities.
You can argue America’s insatiable drug demand is equally to blame. But the Trump administration can’t conduct drone attacks on opioid addicts in Ohio.
Therefore, it says, drastic and even extra-judicial measures like vaporizing narco-vessels have to be taken to wipe out supply.
So, what sort of law enforcement improvement resolve is Latin America showing that could make Trump reconsider his martial campaign there?
What is the region's response to the valid complaint about its inability if not refusal to modernize its corrupt and incompetent police and justice systems?
Bring back Gran Colombia!
Which brings us back to Chile, where public insecurity is the central election issue in what had been one of Latin America’s safest countries.
Almost a third of Chileans were crime victims last year, according to the Associated Press, and a new survey finds almost a quarter fear they could be murdered in the coming year.
On Sunday, Chileans will choose which 20th-century solution they prefer.
