US policy must address Haiti, Central America
The crisis in Haiti is just the latest sign of an American foreign policy in need of a reboot. Haiti and the ongoing problems in Central America have become quagmires right on our doorstep that can't be cavalierly dismissed. Given the proximity of the Caribbean and Central America to our border, now is the time to revamp our economic development and foreign relations attention to America's southern neighbors.
To help countries like Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the U.S. must recommit to being the partner of choice in the hemisphere by expanding its outreach in economic development, security and trade deals to address climate change, health care, infrastructure needs and poverty. New social contracts that address the poor are imperative with the idea of making the region more productive and secure.
Admittedly, this will be no quick or easy feat. Projections by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean put the number of the region's poor at 209 million in 2020, and those numbers are expected to grow, given the one-two punch of a weak world economy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with a daunting challenge and the recent events in Afghanistan, there is little appetite here in putting more resources into a new foreign policy initiative that many will see as nothing more than "nation-building," particularly among a region of Black and brown countries enmeshed in deep poverty, gang violence and political corruption.
Unfortunately, doing nothing isn't an option. Other global players are stepping into the void to raise their status on the world stage.
This week, Tropical Depression Grace brought threats of floods and mudslides to a part of Haiti where last week's 7.2 magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,400 people. The assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, just weeks before, created a power vacuum that left the hemisphere's poorest nation more vulnerable than ever to nature's devastation.
Even as calls for humanitarian aid intensified, the solutions that would provide long-term security and stability remained elusive. "It's nonstop," Christina Romelus, born in Port Au Prince and now a city commissioner in Boynton Beach, Florida, told The Palm Beach Post. "It's exhausting looking at it from afar. Imagine what it feels like on the ground."
The U.s.-mexico border, too, remains an immigration crisis that polarizes our nation and paralyzes Washington leaders responsible for fixing it. Last month, there were 200,000 attempted crossings of Latin American migrants into America, the highest one-month figure in more than two decades. The U.S. expelled half the people, under a policy that allows the administration to turn back migrants without allowing them to claim asylum. Still, the men, families and children, fleeing the oppressive conditions of their homelands, remain undeterred by dangers along the way or policies at the border. They continue to come.
A new foreign policy vision for the region is needed, one that not only fosters stronger partnerships and higher levels of U.S. investment but one that includes better coordination with European nations and other U.S. allies, a recommendation from the House Foreign Affairs report that the Biden administration should implement.
For too long, our foreign policy in this part of the world has failed to match our ideals, much less meet our strategic interests. Both depend upon a stable, secure hemisphere.
Note from Opinion Editor Amelia Robinson: See the full version of this editorial on palmbeachpost.com.