Biden, Palin could be bad for S. America

Over the last few months, you may have read in this column that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s stand on free trade and his Republican rival John McCain’s position on immigration are not good for Latin America. Their respective running mates may be even worse for the region.

Let’s start with Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, who — unlike his Republican rival, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — has a 35-year career in the Senate, and has a long record of votes on almost every issue affecting Latin America.

On free trade, Biden is more of a hard-liner — some would say protectionist — than Obama. While Obama opposed the recent U.S. free-trade agreements with Central America and the pending deal with Colombia but supported the free-trade agreement with Peru — and he repeatedly told me in an interview that he is not “anti-free trade” — Biden has opposed all recent free-trade agreements with Latin America.

The Democratic vice-presidential nominee voted against the U.S. free-trade deals with Chile, Central America and Peru, as well as against similar U.S. deals with Oman and Singapore.

Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign Web site stated that “Joe Biden believes that U.S. trade negotiations must protect American workers by insisting on basic labor and environmental standards.” But critics, including many Latin American trade officials, say Biden has voted against free trade because of his ties to U.S. labor unions, which want to protect their members’ jobs from foreign competition even if that translates into higher prices for U.S. consumers.

Mexico-bashers

In addition, Biden has often come across as a member of the chorus of Mexico-bashers in the U.S. Senate. The Associated Press quoted him as saying in November 2006, when he was about to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that “Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy.”

In fact, Mexico’s seven-decade rule by the authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party ended in 2000. Whatever you may think of the current government, Mexico is more democratic than under the PRI administrations.

“Biden does not have a very distinguished record on Latin America,” says Peter Hakim, head of the Inter-American Dialogue, a bipartisan think tank in Washington. “And Palin is a totally blank slate.”

Indeed, Palin — who reportedly got her first passport last year — has shown scant interest in foreign affairs. A Google search under her name and “Latin America” on Friday yielded only one entry — a blogger noting that there aren’t any such entries.

But on immigration, she is believed by many to be significantly more isolationist than McCain. McCain supported a comprehensive immigration reform ... until he recently switched to a let’s-secure-the-border-first stand.

My opinion: Biden and Palin appeal to the most extreme isolationist-populist wings of their respective parties. No matter whether Obama or McCain win the election, may they be blessed with good health and complete their term, and may we be spared from their No. 2’s.

Chavez’s maneuver

Post script: There are three reasons behind Venezuela’s narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chavez’s decision to expel the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela last week.

UFirst, to divert attention from new revelations in the scandal over the suitcase with $800,000 in cash for political contributions, confiscated from a Venezuelan government delegation in Argentina last year.

USecond, to pre-empt the Sept. 9 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department identifying top Venezuelan officials as active providers of funds and weapons to Colombia’s FARC guerrillas.

UThird, and perhaps most important, to create a climate of international confrontation aimed at justifying new crackdowns on anti-Chavez parties, and preventing a new opposition victory — like that of the Dec. 2, 2007, referendum — in Venezuela’s Nov. 23 state and local elections.

X Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.