Latin American shadowboxing? FTAA delays and challenges for Europe

If proof had ever been needed that the United States' Latin America policies had failed, it was provided by the latest Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata. Washington only just managed to get its prestige Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) project onto the meeting's final statement at all. The Mercosur countries and Venezuela opposed the initiative particularly strongly. Some of the debates over the FTAA revive past battles over questions of opening up markets and redefining the function of the state in the new guise of regional autonomy and self-determination. Europe faces the question of how to respond as Latin America drifts apart, because its current approach of subregional cooperation and continental dialogue is definitely running out of steam in the face of Latin America's very real internal divisions. (SWP-Comments / SWP)