Download Latin summit likely to be tough on Bush

Latin summit likely to be tough on Bush
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President Bush will face a crucial test of his ability to promote his trade and
reform agenda in Latin America at a regional summit this week.
BY PABLO BACHELET
[email protected]
WASHINGTON - Momentarily putting his domestic woes aside, President Bush
will head to Argentina today to give his stalled Latin America free trade and
economic reform agenda a boost at a summit of hemispheric leaders.
The visit presents a serious test for Bush as Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez and other populist leaders challenge his policies, observers say, and
Bush is hampered by a widely held view in Latin America that he is insensitive
to the region's problems.
The trip includes first-time stops in Brazil, expected to be the most meaningful
part of the four-day visit, and Panama.
The Summit of the Americas, to begin Friday in the Argentine coastal city of Mar
del Plata, is the third such gathering of the 34 member countries attended by
Bush, whose standing in Latin America suffered after the Iraq invasion.
The meeting comes as negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas -Bush's cornerstone initiative for the region -- have stalled. And his proposals to
lower barriers to private investment have been challenged by Chávez, who says
Bush's initiatives are capitalist ploys that have widened the gap between the
rich and poor, a posture that resonates in a region with the world's worst income
distribution.
ANSWERING CRITICS
For Bush, the summit will be an occasion to respond to critics who say he has
ignored Latin America, and show his commitment to multilateral diplomacy.
''I don't think good relations necessarily mean somebody has to agree with
America 100 percent of the time,'' Bush told a group of Latin American
journalists this week. ''That's not the definition of good relations.'' Latin
American leaders are unlikely to embrace Chávez's more populist approach -his generous social programs are financed by an oil bonanza -- but there are
concerns that the summit may be co-opted by the Venezuela-U.S. standoff.
Chávez accuses Bush of plotting to kill him, and Bush administration officials
say Chávez is a destabilizing force in the region.
ANTI-U.S. PLATFORM
Nelson Cunningham, a special advisor on Latin America in the Clinton White
House, said the meeting could be ``used by Chávez as an anti-U.S. platform
and the summit could devolve into a very unproductive U.S.-vs.-Venezuela
dialogue.''
The Bush administration played down a potential Chávez-Bush confrontation.
''Our goal is to make sure that the hemisphere maintains a . . . unity of purpose,
and that's what we're going to be focused on,'' said Tom Shannon, assistant
secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. ``I'm not sure where he's going
to be focused on.''
MARADONA'S ROLE
Protesters who oppose Bush and his Iraq policy may also add drama. Argentine
soccer star Diego Maradona has said he will take part in the street protests, and
Chávez has said he was also considering joining them.
Still, many Latin Americans welcome some presidential attention, and Bush is
expected to use the occasion to propose a new jobs program for the region to
help alleviate poverty.
''Leaving aside the [political] fringes, it is globally accepted that the visit of a
[U.S.] president is something positive,'' said José Miguel Insulza, the head of
the Organization of American States. The OAS is coordinating the summit
agenda.
Leaders are often all smiles at summits, but differences were already playing
themselves out behind the scenes. Negotiators were struggling to produce a
final summit statement recommending ways to create jobs. They have been
unable to agree over free trade issues, diplomats said.
Venezuela wants to omit any mention of FTAA in the summit statement. Chávez
has said he wants to ''bury'' the initiative once and for all. If he succeeds, it
would be a major blow for Washington, which has been pushing the FTAA since
1994, when it was launched with much fanfare at the first Americas Summit in
Miami.
Brazil and Argentina have balked at U.S. demands for concessions on
intellectual property, government procurement and other non-trade issues
without a greater opening of the U.S. market for their agricultural exports. U.S.
officials hope to negotiate an end to agricultural subsidies in the context of the
ongoing World Trade Organization Doha round of talks, an impetus to the
FTAA.
DEMOCRACY
Another concern is democratic governance. Insulza noted that the opposition
tends to win in elections, a reflection of popular dissatisfaction with the inability
of governments to get things done. Since 1993, 14 elected Latin American
leaders have been ousted, often by massive street protests.
Many in Latin America are suspicious of free-market reforms espoused by
Bush. In the 1990s, governments lowered trade barriers and privatized state
firms, with little to show for their efforts. Some economists and U.S. officials
argue those reforms were patchily implemented.
Democrats have criticized Bush for focusing too much on free trade and drug
trafficking. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that
Latin America had been ''gravely neglected'' and that Bush needed to make the
region ``a priority of his foreign policy in the second term.''
Administration officials say that contrary to perceptions, Bush is engaged with
Latin America. Most Latin American leaders have met Bush at the White House
and top Cabinet members have traveled to the region recently.
This will be Bush's fifth trip to the region, one short of President Clinton's Latin
outings. Bush has traveled three times to Mexico and once to Peru, El Salvador,
Chile and Colombia.
VISIT TO BRAZIL
On his return leg, Bush will visit Brazil, which the administration views as a key
strategic regional partner, a status enjoyed by countries like India and Japan.
Experts say that given Brazil's weight in trade negotiations and regional issues,
the most important portion of the visit may be the meeting with President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftwing former trade unionist who gets along well with
Bush on a personal level. Bush said that on trade issues, ``when Brazil speaks,
people listen carefully.''
After visiting Brazil, Bush also will include a brief stopover in Panama, a
strategic isthmus country that controls shipping traffic between the Pacific and
Atlantic oceans. He will meet President Martín Torrijos, son of the military
dictator who negotiated the return of the Panama Canal with former President
Jimmy Carter. The United States is negotiating a free trade pact with Panama.