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One year after the election of President Barack Obama, it's time to ask whether his ambitious campaign promises about Latin America are being fulfilled, or whether, like others before him, he has placed the region at the bottom of his foreign policy priorities.

Let's take a quick look at some of Obama's key campaign promises for the region:

� Obama, who had never had much contact with Latin America before his run for the presidency, promised to launch "a new alliance of the Americas" to end "years of negligence" toward the region. These vows largely fizzled as a result of the 2008 economic crash.

� Obama told me in a campaign interview that, in an effort to focus more U.S. attention on Latin America, he would propose changing the 33-country Summit of the...