Five easy wins in the Americas

Peter Hakim writes the first of what will probably be several articles, editorials and op-eds this week about the upcoming Summit of the Americas. He suggests that the president should announce some agricultural subsidy reforms in order to break the ice. I agree with the idea and hope to see it. However, considering his current political problems, I don't expect the president to challenge a domestic constituency right now.

If we want to make progress, we should take a temporary step back from the big items on the US agenda for Latin America (if that can actually be defined), and ask what does Latin America need that we can help with. Here are five easy wins we can have at the Summit with relatively little money or domestic political capital spent on our part.

1. Hurricane relief. The president should announce more funds for hurricane relief efforts in Central America and the Caribbean. These relief efforts should involve the coordination of both military and civilian disaster relief organizations throughout the region. We'll fund it and be partners in coordinating it, but we're going to ask for personnel from other nations to work with us as equal partners on the ground.

2. Preventing Bird Flu/Hoof in Mouth disease. This is a huge concern in Latin America right now. The US can offer to coordinate the knowledge of the spread of infectious diseases in the region. We should offer cheap testing kits to countries that need to protect their borders. We should offer bring together the region's scientists and health workers to discuss prevention and management of the flu. Compared to the president's call for $7 billion, this would be a drop in the bucket for us, but it would make a major impact in the region.

3. Preventing illegal small arms trafficking. Crime and security has become a major issue for many of these governments, and many of the weapons being used come from the US. If we simply cracked down on illegal sales out of the US we'd make a dent. It's an easy promise and requires nothing more than enforcing laws that we already have on the books.

4. Thank the countries individually. Every country in the region (yes, even Venezuela; no, not Cuba) has done something in the past five years to help us in fighting transnational crime or terror. Nearly every country has made progress over the past few decades in the areas of democracy and human rights. Thank them for their help and congratulate them on their successes. Do it individually, in public and in front of the media. These countries are some of our most important allies in the world and they deserve and need some praise from time to time to balance what they view as constant criticism and imposed policies. As a bonus, it'll also get great press coverage and may even get some political capital to use in return.

5. Promise to come back. Pick a week in the first quarter next year, visit again and follow up on the conference issues. It's a short plane ride and a four hour presidential visit obtains days of coverage in these countries not to mention the good will of the leaders. An upcoming presidential visit can serve to break down bureaucratic barriers and force actions on bilateral and multilateral issues. Being able to tell some of these leaders "See you in March" would leave the impression that the region matters and would be a legitimate step to bringing the Americas back on the agenda.

Let's win the small victories first, get some momentum, then go after the larger issues.