The Real Story Behind the Secret Service Prostitution Scandal

Most of the media coverage surrounding President Obama’s visit to Cartagena, Columbia during the April 14^th weekend has centered on the alleged boorish behavior and subsequent resignations of several Secret Service agents, particularly members of the President’s advance team.  Sadly, few media outlets have reported why the President was in Colombia in the first place.  With its tabloid-like focus on sex and prostitution, U.S. news outlets continue to contribute to people’s poorly informed understandings of U.S. foreign policy or the role the United States plays in the affairs of its neighboring countries.

According to the White House’s website, President Obama was in Cartagena to attend the Sixth Summit of the Americas.  While there, the President finalized negotiations on a free trade agreement that takes effect on May 15^th, agreed to continue joint efforts to fight drug trafficking, discussed ongoing initiatives for energy interconnectedness, and agreed to extend visas of Columbians in the US by ten years.

The Summits of the Americas are arranged by the Organizationof the American States, an international body whose current configuration dates to 1948.  Latin American and Caribbean nations comprise most of the OAS membership, but Canada and the United States are member nations too.

That the current OAS’ origins date to the late 1940s should not surprise for a couple of reasons.  For one, the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman still were engaged in the Good Neighbor Policy to some extent during that time.  The Good Neighbor Policy was an attempt to reverse the prior foreign policies of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and its related Roosevelt Corollary of 1910, by stating that the United States no longer would interfere in the affairs of independent Latin American states, but would instead work more cooperatively as partners.  For another, the emergence of the Cold War necessitated the U.S. establishing collective security on a regional basis.  Economical and military alliances with Latin American nations in the interest of U.S. national security seemingly made sense at the time.

Despite its diplomatic overtones and military implications, however, most people think of the Good Neighbor Policy - if they think about it at all - as a cultural exchange between the United States and Latin American countries.  Unfortunately for American audiences, this exchange likely resulted in establishing Latin Americans as campy or cartoonish characters that confirmed existing stereotypes as embodied by Carmen Miranda and Chiquita bananas, or as depicted in by the Walt Disney Company.

The Good Neighbor Policy’s usefulness for subsequent Presidential administrations diminished during the Cold War, as Latin American countries became proxy sites of fighting between the United States and any perceived Communist threat, with the fear of Communists in Latin America resulting in at least one U.S. President circumventing Congress to shape his foreign policy.

As it turns out, then, U.S. involvement with Latin American countries did not start with President Obama’s Colombian visit or with his advance team soliciting prostitutes.  Rather, the U.S. has been screwing Latin America for decades.