President Obama departs today for a five-day visit to Latin America, a trip the White House insists is "about the U.S. recovery, U.S. exports, and the critical relationship that Latin America plays in our economic future and jobs here in the United States."

Earlier in the week an Administration official characterized the trip rather differently, saying the visit is designed to underscore, "the restoration of American influence and appeal in the Americas, and the effect that that has had in diminishing the space for those who try to make a living politically on an anti-American sentiment."

That statement doesn’t seem to be getting much traction, perhaps because it sounds a bit out of step with the reality of the U.S. in Latin America today.

During this his first extended tour of Latin America, the President will be visiting a region whose economy grew six percent in 2010, (the U.S. came in at 2.9 percent), that boasts three female Presidents, (there have been a total of nine; U.S.- zero ) and where China has displaced the U.S. as the leading trade partner of Chile, Brazil, and Peru.

This is not to say that Latin America does not face serious challenges. Problems such as drug trafficking, crime and violence, (El Salvador, the President’s third stop, has one of the highest homicide rates in the world), low education standards, and unemployment are real. Where the U.S. shares responsibility, such as for the region's drug woes, it should work in partnership with Latin American governments, as it does already in many instances. But the political and economic stability the region has achieved in recent years is increasingly allowing for south-led solutions, a fact the U.S. would be remiss to ignore.

When President Obama arrived at the Summit of the Americas in April 2009 bathed in an aurora of “hope” and “change”, the symbolism of his warm encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and declaration that, “The U.S. seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” seemed promising, harbingers of meaningful change to come.

But nearly two years on, evidence of proactive change in U.S. policy toward Latin America is wanting. Washington has largely continued the counterproductive policies of previous American presidents, opting for the comfort of continuity over courage for change, particularly when it comes to Cuba.

While the President has made modest changes to U.S.-Cuba policy, restoring Americans‘ ability to travel to Cuba and expanding U.S.-Cuba diplomatic contact, these measures do not amount to the new beginning that so many Americans and Latin Americans had hoped for. While every nation in Latin America has restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, we cling to a clunky, Cold War embargo that serves the interests of the Cuban government and hard-line Cuban exile community above our own and those of the Cuban people.

While the imprisonment of American contractor Alan Gross has understandably cooled U.S.-Cuba relations considerably, it should not prevent the Administration from taking further steps to re-define our Cuba policy as part of a respectful, pragmatic and forward-looking relationship with Latin America.