A gentler touch with Latin America

Thursday Zoellick was to visit Brazil to discuss economic and diplomatic issues (Brazil has played a key role in peacekeeping efforts in Haiti). He will also pave the way for President Bush to visit Brazil next month during a Latin America swing. Mr. Bush plans to attend the summit of the Americas in Argentina on Nov. 3, before stops in Brazil and Panama.

The US has long counted on its southern neighbors for support in its global objectives, political and economic. But that has changed, experts say, as the US focused more on security concerns after 9/11. The US determination to launch a war in Iraq and its preoccupation with the Middle East didn't sit well with many leaders and publics, and Latin America has pursued closer ties with other powers, including China and the European Union.

"Our standing in Latin America has never been so low as it is now," says Wayne Smith, a former US diplomat in Cuba now at the Center for International Policy.

He and others cite America's response to a coup attempt against Venezuela's President Chávez in 2002, when the US appeared to support some in the military against a democratically elected leader, as one example of the kind of action that has tarnished the US image.

Not all of Latin America's skepticism toward the US can be laid at the feet of the Bush administration, says Mr. Smith. A political turn to the left by countries such as Venezuela and Argentina, he notes, is a reaction to international policies that for two decades emphasized tight fiscal policy and free trade - but that didn't do enough to redress income inequality within nations. "Our low standing is not just a response to the Bush administration, but is really a disenchantment with past US policies and US-inspired policies that have not answered to the needs of the masses of people, as promised," Smith says.

The US is signalling that it understands the need to put more emphasis on reducing poverty and spreading the benefits of a more open economy. The region has some of the widest rich-poor gaps in the world.

Speaking last week at Princeton University, Secretary Rice said, in response to a student question, that US policy in the region has "moved on" to emphasize more than fiscal restraint and transparent governance. "There really has to be a concerted effort to make sure that any benefits of economic growth, because you're getting economic growth in Latin America, ... become tangible benefits for the people."

Such thinking is consistent with the IRI's assessment, says Mr. Dean. For its part, the US must put more focus on closing the economic "performance gap," he says, so that people in Latin America experience "the connection between democratic government and economic opportunity."

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