Latin American right and wrong

Via Americas Quarterly Twitter feed: Juan Manuel Santos is headed to Cuba to talk both to Raúl Castro and Hugo Chávez.

“Vamos a ir a Cuba con dos propósitos: el primero para tener la oportunidad de hablar personalmente, como se hablan todos los buenos amigos, con el Gobierno cubano, con Raúl Castro, el tema de Cuba en la Cumbre que se va a realizar el mes entrante en Colombia”, informó el Presidente Santos. 

Anunció que en el encuentro con el mandatario venezolano, Hugo Chávez, se busca firmar los anexos que permitirán la entrada en vigencia del Tratado Comercial entre Colombia y Venezuela.

Along with Otto Pérez Molina's drug decriminalization talk, this is a shift from the Latin American right. Not necessarily permanent, but still noteworthy. Colombia is always cited by the right in the U.S. as a major ally, yet its conservative president is talking in a friendly way (even "buenos amigos"!) to our enemies, while the U.S. refuses to do so.

It's another example of self-isolation. We're at a point where we can't even convince the more conservative governments in the region that our policies make sense. As a result, they just ignore us.