Our hemisphere’s promise

Opinion: January 4, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Miami Herald: When we suggested at the beginning of this year that the United States should seize the moment to improve relations with the rest of the hemisphere, we made trade the No. 1 item on the policy agenda. Finally in 2011, after seemingly endless delays, Congress ran out of political excuses and approved the free-trade treaty with Colombia and Panama.

The successful effort to cement our economic bonds with the rest of the Western Hemisphere may be the most important achievement for U.S. policy in the region in 2011, a year dominated by headlines over criminal rampages in Mexico and elsewhere and the rants of anti-American leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

Chavez recently led an effort to form a large bloc of hemispheric nations with an anti-American agenda, but its lack of structure and financing calls its seriousness into question. Chavez and his cronies are merely playing the anti-yanqui card in an effort to consolidate their own power.

Here’s a bulletin for them: The days when Latin America was a “backyard” for any of the major powers has long been over. Meanwhile, the smarter leaders of the region — led by Brazil’s spectacular economic growth — are looking toward the future.

In a signal of new-found confidence and vision, Peru, Chile, Mexico and other Pacific nations decided to form a trading bloc with Asia. President Obama, who said at the recent summit with Asian leaders that the United States is thinking along the same lines, should welcome this effort.