Shadows south of the border

Visiting Brazil and Uruguay, the heat was boosted by the temperature of Hugo Chavez’s political tirades. This has become classic Chavez revolutionary road show, something that his Cuban mentor Fidel Castro never thought of.

The oil slick Colonel harangued Bush from the Argentine shores of the great River Plata separating Argentina and Uruguay. Spouting high-octane anti-American rhetoric to a crowd of 40,000, if it really was that large, Chavez still pales compared to Evita Peron. With the snap of a finger and a smile she could have gathered a bigger number. The American President meantime was in neighboring Montevideo, Uruguay discussing trade and economic empowerment for the people.

Today Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil are all democracies; currently they all have elected leftist but representative governments. Until the 1980’s all three were military regimes. So in a sense, Chavez recalls another era, a time of bombastic authoritarians many people would rather forget.

Earlier Bush met with Brazilian President Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo to discuss a serious set of green energy initiatives. Given that Brazil and the USA are the world’s leading ethanol producers, both men agreed to develop next generation of bio-fuel technology and to develop bio-fuel produce in oil dependent countries. Brazilian landmark ethanol program is sugarcane based while the American product comes from corn. Both Bush and Lula apparently discussed Brazil’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Given that Chavez’s Venezuela is a major petroleum exporter to the USA, I suppose this is seen bad for his business—by Uncle Sam wanting to cut oil imports means fewer Yanqui dollars pouring into the coffers of Caracas and perhaps later the Cayman Islands.

I can’t recall that when one world leader was visiting as region there is a kind of counter-visits taking place. In one sense the method was test marketed last fall during the UN General Assembly when Chavez launched his demagogic Devil tirade a day after Bush spoke from the same rostrum. To be sure there have been such antics during G-8 economic summits when the likes of the loony left generally hold a counter-summit in some tropical setting, while the masked anarchists riot and smash plate glass windows in Genoa or Geneva.

But a political road show touring Chavez’s “21st Century Socialism” has potential! The next time Chavez can enlist his comrade Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Islamic Iran, get Colonel Gadaffy for a nostalgic interlude, and arrange a satellite TV hookup for a cameo with Castro.

Sadly there’s a market for Chavez’s politically-hyped parallel message, partly because U.S. Administrations have not paid sufficient attention to the Western hemisphere. Anti-American sentiments have resurfaced with the Iraq conflict. Though Bush initially had planned to make Latin American relations an overdue focus for Washington early in his first term, the collective trauma of the radical Islamic terrorist attacks on America rapidly shifted attention. With the possible exception of Mexico, which the President again visited, Latin America was mostly off the charts. Indeed as Guatemala and Columbia were destinations on the Bush itinerary; Chavez harangued the President from Haiti.

This does not mean Washington has totally overlooked the region. Since 2001 there has been a billion dollars in aid for health and humanitarian assistance given through USAID. Now there’s $4.8 billion in vital debt relief. And during the current trip, $75 million have been slated for youth education initiatives and scholarships.

Still it’s not too late for the United States to refocus some key attention on Latin America—dropping barriers to two-way trade would be a realistic first step. So too would be reviving regular hemispheric dialogues and what used to be called Good Neighbor Policy.