In 2002, the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim received preliminary permits to explore gold-mining possibilities in northern El Salvador. The company's representatives assured residents of nearby San Isidro that the El Dorado mine project would create much-needed jobs and development.

L'Atelier du Chocolat is a gourmet chocolate factory in Mexico with $2 million in annual sales and 63 employees. Among the factory's clients is Liverpool, one of Mexico's largest department store chains, but L'Atelier du Chocolat can only supply seven of Liverpool's 130 stores.

"To be able to serve them all I would have to invest in machinery," says owner Marisol Alfaro. "But I don't have access to financing because I don't have the contract." And Alfaro can't secure the contract until she can prove that she has the means to fulfill it. "It is a vicious circle," she says.

The moment deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya walked into the Brazilian embassy in Honduras' capital, Tegucigalpa, on Sept. 21, Brazil was thrust into the center of the Honduran crisis.

The South American giant has since requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and called for a U.N. investigation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Roberto Micheletti's de facto government in Honduras. At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demanded Zelaya's "immediate return to the presidency."

U.S. policy toward Latin America is suffering from a lack of experience at the top. Neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden or anyone in the cabinet could honestly be considered a Latin Americanist. And Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs -- the top diplomatic post in the region -- remains unconfirmed, the victim of a Republican senator's cheap political maneuvering.

The leaders of the Americas have failed to resolve the political crisis in Honduras. President Manuel Zelaya is still in exile and the de facto government remains, defiant and unmoved.

One base is closed, a replacement is sought and suddenly South America is up in arms. Presidents of Brazil and Chile, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Michelle Bachelet, are troubled by the idea. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warns about potential war. And South America leaders call an extraordinary summit to demand explanations.

President Obama wants to tackle Latin America's crisis of inequality from the "bottom up," as his presidential campaign repeatedly put it. To that end he has already requested a 50 percent increase in development assistance -- a total of $533 million to improve agriculture, education and economic opportunities. He has also asked for an additional $448 million for those hit hardest by the global recession and another $100 million for microfinancing.

The international community roundly and universally condemned the forced expatriation of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya last month. Zelaya's pathetic attempt to return a week later on a flight from Washington deserves equal scorn from anyone legitimately concerned with Honduras' future.

By late 2008, as the rest of the world was falling into one of the worst recessions in decades, the Chilean government had amassed $42 billion in savings -- the result of fiscal discipline and a 60 percent increase in exports since 2005. Now Chile is a creditor nation and the only country to have its credit rating upgraded by Moody's Investor Services during the global recession. On June 23, President Obama called Chilean President Michelle Bachelet one of the "most compelling leaders that we have, not just in the hemisphere but around the world."