Throughout the years, Latin America has been a region of the world extremely important .
Due to its close proximity to the United States, many events that .
occur in Latin America directly influence the United States everyday life. Over the next few .
years, I believe that America needs to make several issues a priority towards Latin America. Most importantly, I believe that the United States needs to continue their support of the Colombian government. For many years now, America has declared a war on drugs, and for the most part, Colombia is root of this problem. Secondly, the U.S. needs to work on an agreement with Mexico concerning illegal immigration into the U.S. These illegal immigrants are not only hurting our economy, but also effecting the citizens in the areas of high concentration of illegal immigrants. Finally, I believe that the United States needs to try to improve their relationship with Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. It is important that we improve trading relations with Venezuela, but also try to make sure that his Fifth Republic Movement does not become too autocratic.
Before America's war on terrorism, the United States had decided to declare a war on drugs. And because 90% of the cocaine entering the United States originates in Colombia, they have been targeted as the enemy. Another problem is how much the neighboring countries are being affected by Colombia's problems. All of the democracies in this area can not continue to fall further behind economically. Because of these circumstances, President Clinton introduced Plan Colombia. This plan aims to inhibit trafficking activity and reduce the cultivation and production of cocaine over a period of five years. The United States has promised at least 1.3 billion dollars, while the Colombian government has provided most of the rest. One strategy that is being used is crop eradication. I believe that this will not be enough to stop the cartels in Colombia though.