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Bush's Latin American Challenge NewsMax.com Wires As President Bush prepared to set off on a five-nation tour of Latin America, he blasted the economic policies of anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying they will lead to "more poverty."
The trip to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico is aimed at promoting cooperation with the U.S. and convincing nations to reject what Bush called the "false promises" of leftist and socialist leaders such as Chavez.
In an interview published Wednesday in five Latin American newspapers, Bush said: "I strongly believe that government-run industry is inefficient and will lead to more poverty. So the United States brings a message of open markets and open government to the region.
"I fully recognize that until people actually feel progress in their pocketbook, that there's going to be frustrations with forms of government. But that doesn't mean you kind of revert to something that I don't believe will work."
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Bush also downplayed a demonstration against his visit that Chavez plans to attend in Argentina on Friday to coincide with Bush's visit to neighboring Uruguay, Agence France-Presse reports.
Bush's trip is seen as a signal that the administration is seeking to adjust to political changes in a region where elections last year brought a broad range of leftists to power, including some who have openly challenged U.S. policies.
In addition to Venezuela – where Chavez has gone so far as to call Bush "the devil" – and longtime U.S. foe Cuba, Bolivia under the leadership of Evo Morales poses new problems for U.S. relations with Latin America.
Morales won office in December 2005 after a campaign in which he often described himself as America's "worst enemy."
Last April he signed a "trade agreement of the people" with Chavez and Castro as part of what he called, in a veiled dig at the Bush administration, an "axis of good." And two days after that, he decreed the nationalization of Bolivia's natural gas industry.
Venezuela's state energy company, meanwhile, has signed a contract to build an ethane, methane and propane plan in Bolivia.
The Bush administration also faces problems with a number of other countries in the region, including:
The guerillas, known as FARC, have murdered thousands of Colombians and kidnapped or killed Americans. FARC closely cooperates with other communist movements in South America and with the Castro regime in Cuba.
In 2003, Kirchner restored full diplomatic ties with the communist regime, and appeared in a regional summit photo opportunity with Chavez and Morales.
There were reports that the regime in Ecuador permitted Colombia's FARC to open more than six bases on its territory.
Washington is hoping that relations with Ecuador will improve under the presidency of Rafael Correa Delgado, who took office in January.
The U.S. is trying to hammer out an agreement with Brazil that would facilitate the import of Brazilian ethanol.
The Bush administration has also clashed with Mexico over immigration issues, and opposition to the war in Iraq has created a rift between the U.S. and most of Latin America.
In the United Nations Security Council, Chile and Mexico opposed a resolution authorizing force in Iraq, and only seven of the 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations supported U.S. military action in Iraq.
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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