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 Editorials | Issues | March 2007 
Bush Set to Begin Latin America Trip
 Letta Tayler - Newsday
| | A poster against US President George W. Bush that reads "Bush Assassin!" is displayed on the area where the World Social Forum was held in Caracas in 2006. Bush criticized the economic model of Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, saying it would lead to more poverty, on the eve of a tour of Latin America aimed at warning against the dangers of populism and isolationism. (AFP/Andrew Alvarez) |
Seeking to mend relations with neglected neighbors and counter the influence of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, President George W. Bush starts on a weeklong swing through Latin America that skeptics call too little, too late.
During his 2000 campaign, Bush promised a "fundamental commitment" to Latin America if he became president. But Sept. 11, 2001, wiped the region from the U.S. radar.
Since then, Latin America has swung politically leftward. And the view south of the border is that the Bush administration comes courting only to push free-trade and counter-narcotics measures, or to seek support for the war in Iraq - a largely futile quest in a region still smarting from its own history of U.S. interventionism.
"Relations between the United States and Latin America are at an all-time low," said Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. Add Bush's poor popularity ratings, his lame-duck status and the new Democratic majority in Congress, and "he doesn't have much traction in the region."
The White House is touting Bush's visit to rightist-ruled Guatemala, Colombia and Mexico and leftist-lite Brazil and Uruguay as the start of a "year of engagement" with the region. Some political experts suspect another aim is to divert attention from Iraq. "Presidents have a tendency to leave town when the going gets rough," said Carol Wise, a visiting professor at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico.
Though not officially on the agenda, U.S. efforts to isolate Chávez are expected to be an overarching topic. There, too, Bush faces an uphill battle.
Chávez is spending billions of petrodollars in the region to gain backing for his leftist crusade against Bush, a man he calls "Satan." And while some Latin American leaders may privately disagree with Chávez, they are expected to present a united front against any outside attempt to sideline him.
To compete with Chávez, Bush on Monday pledged $460 million for Latin American education and housing over three years, as well as plans to dispatch a U.S. Navy hospital ship to treat 85,000 patients in the region. "You have a friend in the United States," Bush said. "We care about your plight."
Latin American leaders have long sought such aid to combat rampant poverty and unemployment, but critics note that most U.S. funds for Latin America still go to counter-narcotics and military programs.
Chávez, never shy of controversy, plans to lead rallies in leftist Argentina and Bolivia during Bush's trip and has called for protests at every stop the U.S. president makes.
Demonstrations aside, two stops could prove embarrassing for Bush. Guatemala, where he will promote President Oscar Berger, is mired in a scandal involving the murders of three visiting Salvadoran legislators, allegedly by four Guatemalan police officers who were executed in prison before they could reveal who ordered the slayings.
In Colombia, right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, Bush's closest regional ally, is reeling from allegations his aides are linked to drug-running paramilitaries. And U.S.-funded counter-narcotics programs have failed to stem a flood of Colombian cocaine into the United States.
The reception is expected to be warmer in Uruguay, where President Tabaré Vásquez is eager to expand bilateral trade. But the U.S. Congress already is sitting on three other regional trade deals, dimming prospects for passage.
In the economic powerhouse of Brazil, President Luís Inacio Lula da Silva will welcome Bush despite his close ties with Chávez and his pivotal role in scuttling a U.S. proposal for a hemispheric free-trade agreement two few years ago.
The two leaders are likely to ink a deal promoting exports of Brazil's sugar-cane-based ethanol as a gasoline substitute. But Lula has made clear he won't snub Chávez as a quid pro quo, particularly as the United States won't end a hefty import tariff on Brazilian ethanol. "The feeling here is that Bush wants to reap the benefits and give nothing in return," said Brasilia-based political scientist David Fleischer.
Mexico, the United States' third-largest trading partner, remains livid over Bush's failure to fulfill a years-old promise to legalize undocumented Mexicans working in the United States, and over the planned construction of a 700-mile wall along the border.
"Mexicans feel deceived by Bush," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a Mexico City-based political analyst. "Like all American presidents, he promised sweeping improvements in U.S.-Latin American relations but left us empty-handed. We continue to be treated as just your back yard."
ltayler@newsday.com
A glimpse of Bush's itinerary during his Latin America tour:
1. Friday: BRAZIL
TOPICS Possible Brazilian ethanol export pact, security
ACTIVITY Tours a city slum
2. Saturday: URUGUAY
TOPIC Trade
ACTIVITY Visits "Uruguay's Camp David"
3. Sunday: COLOMBIA
TOPICS Drug trafficking, left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, trade
ACTIVITY Lunch with ally President Alvaro Uribe
4. Monday: GUATEMALA
TOPICS Trade, drug trafficking
ACYIVITY Tours agricultural co-op
5. Tuesday: MEXICO
TOPICS Drug trafficking, trade, border security, immigration
ACTIVITY Visits Maya ruins
SOURCE: WHITE HOUSE |
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