In a little noticed but important speech on U.S. relations with Latin America delivered earlier this month at the Brookings Institution, senior State Department official Arturo Valenzuela highlighted everything that is wrong with the Obama administration’s approach to its own neighborhood.

The speech was filled with vague platitudes and offered no coherent vision or positive plan for active U.S. engagement with the region. Presidents Bush 43, Clinton, Bush 41, and Reagan all spearheaded at least one major Latin American initiative. We are still waiting for President Obama’s proposal. Valenzuela, the top U.S. diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, had a wonderful opportunity to outline a major multilateral project involving trade liberalization, education reform, or active support for democracy and human rights. Instead, he highlighted a laundry list of micro-initiatives, while also discussing larger programs that were inherited from the Bush administration.