November 7, 2005
Bush trip to Latin America an unmitigated
disaster. Although the corpo-media is painting George W. Bush's trip to an Americas Summit
in Mar del Plata, Argentina and his visits to Brazil and Panama as a "nothing lost,
nothing gained" venture, in reality, it was a total disaster. Bush was clearly afraid
to personally confront Latin America's most popular leader, Venezuela's President Hugo
Chavez Frias. Instead, Bush waited until he arrived in Brazil to accuse Chavez of not
providing for his people. Bush and his support team carefully choreographed Bush's
movements at the summit to prevent any encounter between him and Chavez. The Venezuelan
leader emerged from the summit as the clear victor, Bush as a dejected loser.
Ironically, while poverty, long-term unemployment, and savings have
plummeted for Americans during Bush's term, Chavez has shared his nation's oil revenues
with its poorest citizens. The only Venezuelans who have had to make a sacrifice are
Venezuela's wealthy elite, the natural allies of Bush and the neo-cons who tried to
overthrow Chavez in a coup in April 2002. Chavez and a group of other populist leaders,
including the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, managed to scuttle
Bush's Free Trade Area of the Americas. That plan is now as dead as Bush's social security
reform initiative and his plan for an outbreak of democracies in the Middle East.
Bush whacked like a pinata in Latin America
Bush's visit generated massive street protests in Argentina,
Brazil, and Panama. Observers believe that Bush's visit to Panama was sending a message to
Latin American leaders who oppose Bush. It was in December 1989 that Bush's father invaded
Panama and overthrew its leader, one-time Bush family drug and arms smuggler Gen. Manuel
Noriega.
Bush visit to Panama sends Latin American leaders a message:
Cross me and wind up like Noriega who crossed my daddy
After his disastrous trip to Latin America, Bush arrives back in
Washington just in time to see his party take an anticipated drubbing in off-year
elections on Nov. 8 and the arrival in Washington of Iraqi National Congress head and
Iraqi Oil Minister Ahmad Chalabi, the source of much of the bogus intelligence that was
used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
