In 2023, Spain will hold the presidency of the European Union. It will be a very important moment for a country that stands out for its Europeanism. But the strong interest in the EU cannot make us lose sight of the fundamental importance of Latin America, even as a strategic component of Spain’s strength on the continent.
For this reason, and because of the importance of economic, cultural and political relations with Latin America, the challenges that arise in the near future in the region require a strategic foreign policy approach. Also the alignment of public and private actors interested in the future of the relationship.
It is true that Spain has made an effort to maintain cooperation despite practically the entire region graduating as middle-income countries. However, the structural challenges have become more acute with the pandemic and Spanish support is decisive. The draft law on cooperation that has been recently approved aims to improve some essential instruments.
In economic matters, Latin America has lost Spanish presence, both due to the entry of other investors and business partners and due to the situation of economic decline that it had been dragging on since before the coronavirus became a global pandemic. Spanish companies, despite this, continue to be very present in the region, even in emerging sectors.
However, they face China’s grand international strategy and its financial and productive capabilities. This means that our companies need support and political backing to operate competitively in the new international scenario. They also need to offer qualitative advantages over other suppliers of goods and services.
“In Spain, Latin America has lost relevance in the public agenda for various reasons”
It is also important to recognize the potential of the relationship, of the Spanish market and its dominant presence on the music and content creation stages in the world. And value the potential of shared human talent, the synergies in the vision of the international system and even the importance of human flows, which have underpinned structural deficits in Spanish demography, in an adaptation process whose success is unparalleled in Europe.
One of the great challenges for defining the strategy for the region is the political scenario. In 2022, the political landscape of Latin America may consolidate a turn that will lead to a new leftist majority. However, the mobilization of voters who have brought and will bring the new rulers to power is full of challenges: the economic cycle does not accompany it, structural deficits have worsened and disaffection due to the frustration of expectations of social mobility and well-being give little room to get results to the new governments.
The political challenges are not only external. In Spain, Latin America has lost relevance in the public agenda for various reasons. The first of these is the preeminence of the European agenda, which poses a false dichotomy. For Spain, more Latin America has to be more Europe.
The second, and more serious, is a reductionist tendency of the Latin American vision and presence that constricts the debate to a few countries, making the breadth of relations with the region invisible and ignoring its regional structure, its asymmetries and its opportunities. This reductionism makes us vulnerable: it has led to neglecting the relationship with some countries and has strengthened the degradation of the political debate.
This problem is usually blamed on the polarization around Venezuela’s dictatorial drift, which has served as an excuse for the creation of ideological trenches, both at the Latin American and Spanish levels. This polarization is one more sign of the lack of strategy that leads to turning the Venezuelan case into a throwing weapon, useful for the national political mud. But it is disastrous for foreign relations and even for Venezuelans.
“It is not convenient for the construction of identity narratives to be led by extremist political actors”
Spain is interested in a strong relationship with Latin America, beyond the political signs of its governments, as long as they are the result of free elections, and as long as they are transparent and respectful of the rule of law and human rights. This also leads to the need to establish red lines and alert systems in the face of evidence of loss of quality of democracy.
Another challenge is the construction of a story about the relationship between the parties. Spain was successful in its strategic approach to Ibero-America, which meant a horizontalization of the relationship and the overcoming of the Hispanic narratives opposed to the identity construction of the Latin American Republics.
It is not convenient for the construction of identity narratives to be led by extremist political actors, who legitimately seek their electoral niches, but who can affect strategic interests and tear apart the relationship that has been so carefully built over the past 35 years.
This trend towards revisionist debate is going to be even stronger in the coming years, both in Latin America and in Spain. The necessary expansion of the spaces of political representation will bring challenges in this regard. We must anticipate (if we are not late), build a story, institutionalize it, work on a prospective diplomacy that puts forward the advantages of the relationship and its strengths, limiting the spaces and dangers of nativist narratives.
“2022 will be decisive to define a long-term strategy tailored to the challenges that arise”
This does not mean forgetting the past, it means recognizing the legitimacy of their different perceptions and the need to expand the narratives. Also value the efforts and values of the present.
Latin America once again plays a crucial role. The rupture of the historic regional consensus in the recent election of the Ibero-American Secretary General is a strong claim. However, taking advantage of the great work of the organizations that make up the conference, the beginning of the term of a new secretary is a good opportunity to revitalize and renew the common political construct.
Transversely to the strategy towards Ibero-America, new issues must be included effectively on the agenda: gender, digitization, science, environmental sustainability, and align them with the European strategy. These are determining issues in a world in which, within the framework of the constant drive between China and the United States, regional associations become international power stakes.
Spain knows Latin America like nobody else. Furthermore, the Spaniards there have been magnificent ambassadors. Its academics have been the drivers of improving the quality of higher education in Latin America and have helped put the region in scientific rankings. There are many Spaniards at the top levels of the multilateral organizations present in the region. Spanish non-governmental organizations have enormous roots and the Spanish company has had a strategic springboard in Latin America for its internationalization.
2022 will be decisive to define a long-term strategy tailored to the challenges that arise. Some challenges that allow us to take full advantage of the Spanish presidency of the European Union in 2023.
*** Erika Rodríguez Pinzón is a doctor in International Relations, professor of Political Science at the Complutense University of Madrid and coordinator of Latin America at Fundación Alternativas.
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