President George W. Bush heads for a seven day trip to South America which will include 7 countries, with the hopes of gaining the support of some against the “rising left tide” across the continent. Can he succeed? Hardly. With the growing support and sympathy to Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez in Latin America, and at a time when Bolivia, Nicaragua, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and Uruguay followed the suit (not to mention Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica where the left candidates were also very close to win but lost in tight results) Bush and the rotten Washington strategies for Latin America (that lasted for decades) are definitely desperate now. Mark Weisbrot writes about this:
| The Bush Administration’s policy of trying to isolate Venezuela from its neighbors has only succeeded in isolating Washington. Last week President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, speaking in Caracas, flatly rejected the notion that Argentina or Brazil should “contain President Chavez,” who he called “a brother and a friend.” In another thinly-veiled swipe at Washington, Kirchner said: “It cannot be that it bothers anyone that our nations become integrated.” At the same time he announced that Venezuela and Argentina will jointly issue a “Bond of the South” for $1.5 billion. |
| It’s all about denial. The political and economic changes sweeping Latin America are a serious break with the failed policies of the past. Washington’s influence has collapsed, and is not likely to recover. |
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April 28, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I guess this is what people get for their greed.
Seriously, I have no problem with what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela. Years of capitalist oppression brings poverty and from that springs a desire for Equality – Marxism.
People have to understand that Poverty is the cause of Communism, not the other way around.
If Washington wants to gain influence, it has to reach to the people in a way Chavez and Morales are reaching out.
May 1, 2007 at 7:23 am
[quote]If Washington wants to gain influence, it has to reach to the people in a way Chavez and Morales are reaching out.[/quote]
Exactly, lamenter. As simple as this. Moreover, Washington needs to try to see itself from outside, with the eyes of the non-Americans. This could be hard and “hurting”, especially in Latin America, where the U.S. had supported (if not completely organized) military coups and despotic regimes that killed ten thousands of people.