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 Editorials | March 2007 
Bush's "Magical Mystery Tour" in Latin America
 Michael Werbowski - PVNN
Bush's Latin American journey is notable for its timing. It comes very late in his second term as president. And after years of neglecting its "backyard" perhaps it's too late. This trip is also most likely his final one to the region while in office. Another noteworthy aspect is his itinerary.
Where he is not going is just as important as the places he is going to visit. Glaringly absent from the travel agenda are Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua. Or those places which are right now are radically redefining the entire continent if not all of Latin America's relationship to Washington and in turn its image in the wider world. This absence evidently underlines the U.S's diminished and waning influence in what is once considered its own back yard since the days of the Monroe doctrine.
A "war president" plays the Pope
To counter act this trend Bush. intoned ahead of his departure that: "The United States of America is committed to helping people rise out of poverty".
Taking the cue from his retinue of advisers Bush is unlikely to neither mention the fractious issues of the "free trade" mantras nor make any anti Chavez declarations on this Southern jaunt. Playing the "soft power" card Bush seeks provides millions in medical and technical dollars to the region's sick and poor masses. It looks like Bush is competing with Castro's Cuban doctors and Chavez whose offers of ship cheap oil to the cold and needy up North has won the "firebrand" renegade leader of Venezuela much admiration on Bush's home turf. Yet, behind the gestures of goodwill emanating from the White house it remains unclear what the objectives of these humanitarian efforts are really. For instance will the medics be accompanied by military personnel in army fatigues, thus establishing a platform in key areas of Latin America such as the resource rich Amazon area which Washington seeks to militarize and inevitably control (1)?
A tepid official welcome at best may contrast with ire on the streets.
The U.S president might be ex pectin the red carpet to be rolled out for him. But he may be lucky to even get a welcome mat at the door. Warm embraces historically reversed for European potentates, Vatican officials or more recently leaders of Mercosur the regional trading "powerhouse" will probably be replaced by courteous hand shakes at official photo ops at best. Bush might give us a smile and pat his Uruguayan or Brazilian counterpart on the back just for good measure. Yet signs of open hostility to the American leader's global policies - from his retrograde stance on global warming to his fossilized view of Cuba - are likely to overshadow his visit in the form of street protests wherever he goes.
Cold comfort for a "Lame Duck" president flying down south.
It appears Bush embarks on this trip a wounded and weakened man politically. He lost control of the Congress; his Iraq policy is in shambles and is deeply discredited but above all his stature internationally speaking as "leader of the free world" has been so much downgraded due to colossal foreign policy flops. Of his own making... Above all he has few foreign friends left out there... Bush's close advisor, the deputy U.S secretary of state, John Negroponte (2) is surely aware that his boss is almost considered a "persona non grata" not only in Chavez's country but throughout most of Latin America. The paradox of all this is this: The U.S leader to the delight of his ideological enemies and rivals alike has become the pariah president in the Latin America that everybody loves to loathe.
Latin American side -show or a U.S media Circus Maximus
In view of gathering storm clouds in the middle east over Iran's nuclear designs, this trip gives an impression of being a distraction to get American's attention away from current woes in the White house; Libby's trail, the Walter Reed/veterans scandal, etc. This trip is meant as well it seems, to buff up Bush's tarnished image as a worldly "statesman" and to salvage what is left of sacred precepts of free trade. These precepts have few followers left in Latin America. Instead the few remaining scraps of this doctrine will be preached to the converted in the form of bilateral trade agreements to "client states". Or be dolled out in more billions of aid (mostly military hardware) to the U.S closest cronies like Columbia.
Ideological strictures which seemed to have had the entire hemisphere's blessings back when the FTAA of free trade of the America was launched in at America summit in Quebec City are today deeply discredited. Free trade floundered because it depended on one way trade; or complete U.S multinational access to Latin America's markets in and above all its cheap oil. Latin America has asserted itself by forming regional trade alliances of its own snubbing Washington in the process. And cheap and bountiful petroleum is a thing of the past.
Buenvenidos President Bush?!
Bush's Mexican final stop on the trip is a blessing to Calderon who may have won the elections (by an even slimmer margin than Bush did in 2000) but he has yet to win the confidence of the foreign investors in his country and abroad. He must prove that "the steady as she goes" neo liberalism adopted by his predecessor Vincente Fox is still "the only game in town". He has to convince his American counterpart that Mexico's boutique is still open to U.S corporations and investment banks for business. Calderon however, no matter how much affinity he may have for his American guest and however negatively he may perceive Castro, Chavez or Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega knows he can't completely sacrifice Mexico's ties with the rest of Latin America as tribute to the "gringo God" of the North.
Calderon may adopt a more pragmatic less confrontational policy towards Cuba and foster better ties with Havana strictly for business reasons. The same could be true for Calderon's ideological nemesis Chavez. Mexico does not wish to harm the courtship process with Mercosur (3) of which Venezuela is a key participant by antagonizing America's arch enemy. However ambitious agenda of President Bush's trip may be it's unlikely to re-oriented Latin America back into America's backyard.
(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4289224.stm
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur
View the Worldpress Desks profile for Michael Werbowski. |
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