As the American people mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter, we at the Inter-American Dialogue want to take a moment to reflect on his profound and important impact on the Americas.
For those of us who worked with and around the former president, his tenure as president and his years directing the Carter Center and undertaking ground-breaking work in social justice, democracy promotion, public health, and affordable housing and infrastructure are all of the same cloth.
As president, Jimmy Carter negotiated and concluded the Panama Canal Treaties, guaranteeing free and peaceful movement of goods between the Pacific and the Atlantic, allowing Panama to consolidate control of its national territory and to develop into a thriving democracy. He embedded democracy promotion and human rights as central tenets of U.S. policy in our Hemisphere, thus ensuring that the United States could accompany and act in solidarity with the region’s democratization. He made fighting corruption an important part of our commercial and investment outreach in the region, setting standards that still guide U.S. private sector engagement in the Americas.
Despite the political acrimony that followed his tenure as president, even administrations that disagreed with his approach in the region recognized and understood that Hemispheric security could not be imposed by force. His belief that meaningful partnership in the Americas depended on political reform, free and fair elections, and respect for individual rights and liberties became a fundamental component of U.S. policy and multilateral agreements such as the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
President Carter continued this legacy in his decades of work following his presidency. The Carter Center, under his leadership and through his personal engagement in the Americas, became an important point of reference on electoral observation. While sharply focused on free and fair elections, and the peaceful transfer of power, he also understood the importance of conditions underlying democratic expression. He argued that democratic governance was a means by which peoples sought to create democratic societies. His work addressing inequality of access and highlighting the immediacy of health, housing, education, and security in the lives of all citizens gave democracy a human face.
President Carter was also a faith-filled man. His faith journey had a profound impact on his political journey, and it opened up new channels of engagement and understanding in the Americas. He acknowledged the transcendence that has always been an important component of the peoples and communities of the Americas. In this regard, he reminded us all of the importance of humility, decency, and service in pursuit of our political goals.
As we turn to the memorial service at Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral, and President Carter’s burial alongside his beloved Rosalynn, in Plains, Georgia, we tip our hat to a great man. May God bless him and hold him close.
