El Fracasado Legado de Bush en América Latina

Luego de haber prometido que éste sería el "Siglo de las Américas" durante su campaña presidencial en el 2000, el Presidente Bush viajó a América Latina hoy con una "mano débil" luego de años de darle la espalda a la región, años de romper promesas, y años de políticas fracasadas alrededor del mundo. [Boston Herald, 3/3/07] La Guerra en Irak de la Administración Bush es tan impopular en América Latina como lo es en el resto del mundo, y los errores torpes de la Administración en torno a la política extranjera han creado un ambiente de desconfianza, el cual ha permitido que extremistas como Hugo Chavez puedan solidificar su poder a la vez que se alejan muchos otros gobiernos Latinoamericanos de los intereses estadounidenses. Hace solo seis semanas, el Presidente de Iran y paria internacional Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recibió una cálida recepción durante su propia gira por América Latina, mientras buscaba fortalecer nexos con gobiernos opuestos a la política extranjera de la Administración Bush. [AFP, 1/16/07]

El viaje del Presidente también pone el enfoque de nuevo sobre la inabilidad de la Administración Bush de unirse a los Demócratas para lograr una reforma integral de inmigración en los Estados Unidos. Mientras los candidatos presidenciales del Partido Republicano han asumido, en gran parte, posiciones anti-inmigrantes, los Republicanos en el Congreso están usando la "debilidad política de Bush" como la razón por la cual el Presidente no podrá presionar a los legisladores Republicanos para que acepten la reforma integral. [Time, 3/12/07]

Si el Presidente está esperando poderse escapar de encuestas negativas, no lo logrará en el extranjero. Tres de cada cinco latinoamericanos desconfían de los Estados Unidos y ya han comenzado protestas contra el Presidente Americano en países que espera visitar esta semana. [CNN, 3/8/07; Miami Herald, 4/18/06]

"El Presidente desperdició una oportunidad importante cuando escogió darle la espalda a América Latina," dijo el portavoz del Comité Nacional Demócrata Luis Miranda. "La arrogancia de la Administración Bush, su obstinación y sus políticas fracasadas han alejado a nuestros aliados y vecinos más cercanos cuando más los necesitamos. Esta nueva campaña publicitaria solo sirve para recordar lo tanto que ha sufrido la reputación estadounidense bajo el liderazgo de Bush. La realidad es que el Presidente Bush no está ofreciendo un verdadero compromiso ni el liderazgo necesario para avanzar los intereses de Estados Unidos ni en el extranjero ni a nivel doméstico, y al final del día ese puede ser su legado."

Bush No Se Puede Esconder de Encuestas Negativas

Bush No es Popular en su Propio "Patio". "Second-term presidents often find comfort in foreign policy and overseas travel as they lose clout at home. A statesman-abroad strategy, however, will not work particularly well for President Bush on a six-day Latin American trip designed to signal a revitalized U.S. commitment to the region. Bush is unpopular throughout the globe, even in this country's backyard, and will find it hard to escape the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan no matter where he goes." [Boston Herald, 3/3/07]

Tres de Cada Cinco Latinoamericanos Desconfían de E.E.U.U. "Three out of every five Latin Americans distrust the United States, a recent regional poll by the Chile-based Latinobarómetro firm showed. And only one in four members of the Latin American elites held a favorable view of Bush, according to a poll last summer by The Miami Herald, University of Miami and Zogby-International." [Miami Herald, 4/18/06]

Gira Publicitaria No Dará Resultados

Boston Herald: Bush Va a América Latina Con "Mano Débil." The Boston Herald said that President Bush goes to Latin America with a "weak hand." The President's power, "granted by Congress, to negotiate [trade] deals in an expedited way expires on July 1. Renewal is dubious. Bush's hosts are mindful of a president hobbled at home by low approval by ratings and an opposition-led Congress, and with little say in his own party's choice of a 2008 presidential candidate to succeed him." [Boston Herald, 3/3/07]

Los Expertos Dudan Que el Viaje a América Latina Resutará en Algo. "The president is going to a part of the world that hasn't been terribly controversial and where he hopes to leave some positive legacy," said Geoff Thale of the Washington Office on Latin America. The nonprofit organization promotes civil rights and democracy. "I think it's great that he's going. But the question is, other than on the rhetorical level, is he going to accomplish anything?" [Boston Herald, 3/3/07]

"América Latina Cautelosa de Nueva Atención Estadounidense." According to the Los Angeles Times, the Bush Administration's efforts under their "self-proclaimed 'year of engagement' with Latin America" are being panned by government officials and policy analysts throughout the hemisphere. "The moves are widely seen in South America as an effort to counter the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez" but the "conventional wisdom,even among U.S. allies" is that Latin America has been "largely ignored" while the Bush Administration has remained fixated on Iraq. Furthermore, the void is widely expected to "widen as a politically debilitated Bush assumes lame-duck status." As the Times pointed out, the outreach six years into the Bush Administration comes after "recent elections put leftists in charge in much of the region, including pro-Chavez presidents in Ecuador and Bolivia." [LA Times, 2/12/07]

Analistas Dudosos de Que Estrategia Antichavista Rinda Frutos. "Most analysts are skeptical that the anti-Chavez strategy will bear fruit in places such as Brazil and Argentina, where leftist presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Nestor Kirchner, respectively, have eschewed Chavez's anti-Washington rhetoric but have welcomed Venezuela into the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur. Chavez has used the platform to criticize U.S. policies, as he did at a hemispheric trade enclave in Argentina in 2005, when a flustered Bush was unable to craft a new free-trade zone, to Chavez's delight. 'In private, some leaders may express concern about Chavez, but publicly there is a sense of unity among South American countries in defending sovereignty and resisting efforts to divide the hemisphere,' said Riordan Roett, director of the Latin American studies program at Johns Hopkins University" [LA Times, 2/12/07]

El Legado de Fracasos de Bush

Historial Frágil de Bush en Tratados de Comercio Con América Latina. "During his 2000 campaign, Bush said Latin America would be a 'fundamental commitment of my presidency.' Soon after taking office, he stood with other leaders at a 'Summit of the Americas' in Quebec City, Canada, and advocated a free-trade zone ranging from Alaska to Chile's Cape Horn. Hopes for a hemisphere-wide trade pact are dashed. Brazil, South America's biggest economy, helped form a rival trade bloc with Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and, more recently, Venezuela. Bush instead has sought country-by-country trade deals. Three are pending with Peru, Colombia and Panama. A free trade deal is being negotiated with Uruguay, whose president, Tabare Vazquez, has expressed unhappiness with the rival bloc. Bush won approval of a Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2005 by only a single vote in the Senate and Congress was then in Republican hands. There has been a U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade pact since the early 1990s." [Boston Herald, 3/3/07]

Líderes Pro-E.E.U.U. y Pro-Libre Mercado Perdiendo Terreno en América Latina. "Economist Rafael Correa was sworn in as president as Latin leftists and Iran's president looked on. Correa, 43, took the oath of office in the presence of 11 presidents, including fellow Latin American leftists Evo Morales of Bolivia, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the most controversial guest, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, on a swing through Latin America seeking common ground with other leaders resisting US foreign policy as applied by US President George W. Bush." According to Agence France Presse, "Correa won his term...when he beat pro-US candidate Alvaro Noboa" and "plans not to renew US free-trade talks and to allow a lease to lapse for a US air base on the Pacific Coast that is mainly used to track illicit drug shipments when it comes due in 2009." At his inauguration, "Correa promised 'a rapid, deep and radical revolution' to reverse free-market policies prescribed by the International Monetary Fund...and then cease future dealings with it." [AFP, 1/16/07]

Administración Bush Le Dió la Bienvenida a Un Golpe de Estado, Perdió la Autoridad Moral y Política. In Venezuela, the Bush Administration welcomed a transitional government installed by an attempted coup as the elected president sat in military custody, undermining our moral and political authority in the region. The move reduced our ability to press the Chavez government to stay on a democratic course, and has continued to plague American efforts in the region, including those to rein in the Castro-friendly Venezuelan regime. In a hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University noted that, "[t]his misstep undermined the political and moral authority of the United States to exhort other hemispheric partners to expand the Democratic Charter of the OAS to include serious challenges to the democratic governance stemming from the personalization of power". [Statement of Arturo Valenzuela, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies Georgetown University for the Committee on House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, 3/1/07]

Arrogancia Política de la Administración Bush Fue Rechazada en la OEA. The Bush Administration's proposal to have the 34-country Organization of American States create a committee tasked with monitoring the state of democracy in member nations was so poorly handled at the OAS meeting that it was immediately rebuked, and the missteps were denounced by the Miami Herald as "political arrogance, an oversight or incompetence." The Herald criticized the Bush Administration for possibly being "more interested in talking to a domestic audience than to the rest of Latin America," and declared such a strategy "a big mistake." The pro-democracy proposal would have helped clamp down on the pro-Fidel Venezuelan regime, but was criticized by member nations for its last minute distribution and for the Bush Administration's apparent attempt to ram the proposal through at the meeting. [Miami Herald, 06/06/2005]

Administración Bush Aún No Está Liderando En Torno a la Reforma Integral de Inmigración. After "strongly" supporting HR 4437, the House Republican bill that would have criminalized doctors, priests, immigrants and their families, President Bush has still not delivered the leadership needed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Congressional Republicans are now speculating that Bush may be too politically weak to get enough of them to support Democrats in the effort to pass reform before the end of the year. According to Time magazine, "Republicans say Bush's political weakness is too great to coerce enough wavering G.O.P. lawmakers to risk their seats out of loyalty to the President. 'What leverage does he have? Not a lot,' says a senior Senate Republican aide.Democrats say Bush's biggest problem is his style of dealing with Congress.'he needs to engage early in the process to prove this is a real priority for him.'" [Time, 3/12/07; Statement of Administration Policy, 12/15/05; Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 3/24/06; National Catholic Reporter, 3/3/06; NPR, 3/5/06; Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, 3/31/06]