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 News from Around the Americas | March 2007 
Bush Can Expect Wary Reception in Latin America
 Jan Uwe Ronneburger - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
| | A protester spray-paints a wall with the phrase 'Bush, Genocide' during a demonstration against the upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in Guatemala City March 3, 2007. (Reuters/Carlos Duarte) |
Buenos Aires - US President George W Bush can expect little sympathy for his political predicaments when he begins a six-day, five-country Latin America trip Thursday in Brazil.
His unpopular military campaign in Iraq, the perception of US high-handedness in world affairs and failed economic experiments supposedly based on the US model have tattered the image of the colossus the north.
Lately, Leftist-populist slogans inspired by the fiery rhetoric of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have also shaped the image of the US in its own backyard. Unions and other leftist organizations in several countries have announced protests against Bush, labelling him a 'murderer.'
At the governmental level, though, the unpopular president of the world's largest economy can expect a lot more pragmatism. This applies especially to Brazil, where observers are convinced that the first stop on Bush's trip is also the most important.
The centre of his talks will be ethanol fuel and extracting it from renewable resources. The US and Brazil together produce more than 70 per cent of the world's bio-fuels.
Bush, who rejected the Kyoto protocol and until recently paid little heed to warnings about climate change, is seeking achievements on the environmental front, now that the politics of global warming can no longer be ignored.
However, Washington is seeking more than just alternatives to climate-changing fossil fuels, the Spanish-language economic magazine Valor wrote recently. By promoting bio-fuel production, Bush wants to counter Chavez's oil diplomacy.
A report in the newspaper Estado de Sau Paulo said that Bush wants to propose forming an ethanol-version of the OPEC oil cartel, when he meets with Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva, a life-long leftist who has governed as a moderate.
A joint project to promote ethanol production could trigger investments of 100 million dollars over the next five years.
In Uruguay, as well, there is expected to be little jubilation for Bush.
The coalition government of Bush's host, Tabare Vazquez, the first leftist president in Uruguayan history, has been thrown into near crisis over Bush's visit.
Sandwiched between the Mercosur partners Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is urgently seeking a partner outside the South American economic bloc. Improving trade relations between the US and Uruguay, therefore, is first on the list of topics to be discussed.
The central topic when Bush makes a short stop in Colombia will be the fight against the production and trafficking of narcotics.
President Alvaro Uribe, who has taken a hard line against Marxist guerillas in the country's 40-year civil war, is a close Bush ally and would like to extend a plan for fighting both coca cultivation and leftist rebels into a second phase. The first phase devoured billions of dollars in military and financial aid in recent years without resolving the problem.
Bush's stops in Guatemala and Mexico are expected to be less contentious. The US president wants to begin a new chapter in US- Mexican bilateral relations when he visits Mexico City, where Felipe Calderon, a new conservative president, has taken over.
Mexico, the stop on Bush's trip that is most economically and politically intertwined with the US, last year nearly touched off a nightmare when leftist populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was nearly elected.
The danger of a slide to the left has been averted, at least for now. Thus, Washington has a great interest in strengthening Mexico. |
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