The United States—Latin America and the Caribbean: From Neopan-Americanism to the American System for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

In an essay entitled “The United States—Latin America: From Panamericanism to Neopanamericanism”¹ an attempt was made to analyze the emerging scenario opened for the inter-American relations at the end of the cold war in 1989. Using the history of relations between the United States and the Caribbean as the general context, it is a great parable that has two historic junctures, the development of the First Pan–American Conference, Washington DC, October 1889 and the regional juncture opened exactly a hundred years later, that is to say, 1989. Obviously the intention of connecting both junctures in one historic comparison, consciously assumed numerous risks: the abstraction of a great many events not linked to the subject in between both; the possible involuntary omission of facts and analysis that should be considered; and above all, to offer the necessary arguments to understand why the comparison was made. The main purpose of that exercise was to show, first, how much inter-American relations were transformed with the change of the United States hemispheric position from regional to hemispheric power; and as a result of this, how much it facilitated the international and regional juncture of 1989, the development of new policies and strategies designed by the American government, different from what had happened a hundred years ago. As a basis for comparison, the Pan-American project was chosen; adding to this the clarification that everything related to the socalled inter-American System structured after the end of World War II was intentionally excluded.