impact in shaping the region’s attitudes toward the United States. In an example of
scale, in 2006, U.S. bilateral development assistance to Latin America was $1.6 billion, while total private investment to the region was $26.8 billion. On such issues as labor rights, transparency, and the rule of law, the U.S. government has a shared set of interests with business coalitions.
Even more, this last decade has seen the emergence of a number of strong local NGOs that are committed to addressing many of the long-standing social inequities that governments have failed to resolve. The United States should lead alliances with these groups to complement state-to-state relations
All of this suggests that partnership alone cannot be the fulcrum of the U.S. relationship with Latin America. With Obama’s assistant secretary of state, Arturo Valenzuela, in place, the United States must now balance its ideas of partnership with steadfast and strong leadership. Latin America’s leaders -- although keen to reap the benefits of a more prominent global standing -- have shown themselves unwilling to address crises out of fear of domestic and regional backlash. As a result, Washington has learned that it will occasionally have to break with the regional consensus to deal with the challenges of Latin America. Aspiring Latin American leaders need to learn that lesson, too. Working with individual partners and across sectors can help the United States achieve exactly that.