Miami Herald, Chile: A reliable U.S. partner (Un socio confiable de los EEUU)

Moments before Sebastian Piñera was inaugurated as Chile's new president last month, the second massive earthquake to hit Chile in less than two weeks rattled buildings and nerves.

In some respects, Piñera's election itself was a seismic shift for Chile: the first election of a center-right president in half a century, and the first handover of power back to the right since General Augusto Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship ended 20 years ago.

The U.S. response to the Chilean earthquakes has been strong and supportive. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had been planning to visit Chile anyway, met shortly after the initial quake with then-President Michelle Bachelet and personally delivered not only satellite phones but the promise of continued support, providing a tangible symbol of the Obama and Bachelet administrations' close connection.

The U.S. response to the shift in the political landscape should be equally forward-looking and constructive.

While Piñera comes from the center-right, his personal history is that of a Harvard-educated economist and successful businessman who supported Pinochet's economic reforms, but whose political views were far more complex. His brother served in Pinochet's cabinet, but he himself publicly supported the vote in 1989 to return Chile to democracy.

Indeed, President Piñera has little in common with the Pinochet era, save a love of economic orthodoxy and pragmatism. Think instead Mike Bloomberg: a modern, pragmatic, results-oriented business leader -- more independent than ideological.

I saw Piñera's pragmatism on display 10 years ago when, as a conservative opposition figure and business leader, he accompanied President Ricardo Lagos of the left-leaning Concertación on a trade mission to Silicon Valley. As the three of us traveled together to Mexico from California afterward, we engaged in a sincere discussion -- across borders and party lines -- of how we could strengthen U.S./Chile relations even further.

Modern-day Chile has its political extremes to be sure, but most Chileans inhabit the political middle. ``Socialist'' presidents like Lagos and Bachelet have embraced open-market neoliberal economic agendas. And we can expect Piñera to govern in the same tradition, just off from center. Piñera has pledged to build on the Bachelet administration's efforts, rather than ``starting from zero.'' And despite his campaign emphasis on pursuing growth more aggressively than his predecessors and reducing the role of the state, he has responded to the massive earthquake with a strong focus on social policy.

So despite the change from center-left to center-right, we may expect from Chile the same socially-conscious, market-based domestic policies that have made it in a model in Latin America -- and the same spirit of international partnership abroad.

At a time when democracy has eroded across the Andes, the United States needs friends and partners in Latin America who strongly believe in democracy. Chile offers an inspiring role model of an open society that works, where government is accountable, dialogue is honest, corruption is intolerable and no one is above the law. As President Bill Clinton said when we visited Chile in 1998, ``No one loves freedom more than those who have had it and lost it. No one prizes it more than those who have lost it and regained it.''

The people of Chile prize freedom and peace and have been champions of both, in places as nearby as Peru and Ecuador and as far as the Persian Gulf.

Chile has also been an economic leader through sound, consistent policies, marked by high savings and low inflation, and rewarded with sustained growth, which has earned the country the invitation to become the OECD's 31st member -- its first from South America. And at a time when President Obama has set a goal of doubling exports in the next five years, our Free Trade Agreement with Chile stands as a testament to what could be: our bilateral trade tripled in the first four years after the treaty was signed, and now surpasses $20.2 billion.

And, on the Obama administration's top trade priority, the Trans Pacific Partnership, Chile is one of the seven countries who will join the United States to create a ``comprehensive, high-standard'' trade agreement the partners will negotiate, which will become a platform for economic integration across the Asia-Pacific.

In short, in the years ahead, the Obama administration should find in Chile a reliable and constructive partner. While President Piñera visits Washington for the nuclear summit of leaders, no one will need to push ``reset'' on the already strong U.S.-Chile relationship.

Thomas F. McLarty served as President Clinton's first chief of staff and special envoy for the Americas. He is chairman of McLarty Associates in Washington, D.C.

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