(SHOULD BE IN EDITORIALS) Damned Yankees (Summit of the Americas)

[kskiska]

There was no disguising the disenchantment felt with the Bush administration by many of Latin America's leaders at this week's Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico. There was no surprise, either, in the fact that what little progress was made was focused on fence-mending between the US and its contiguous neighbours and Nafta partners, Canada and Mexico.

Both countries fell out of favour in Washington over their opposition to the Iraq war. Both have now received, in effect, a presidential pardon. Canada's new premier, Paul Martin, won a share of the Iraq reconstruction contracts, after previously being shut out, because George Bush needs all the help he can get there. Mexico welcomed Mr Bush's new plan to ease the plight of illegal immigrants working in the US. President Vicente Fox will present the deal as a personal success. Mr Bush will use it to win over Latino voters next November.

This mutual back-scratching rather left the other 31 national leaders out in the cold. But again, there was no surprise in that. Being either ignored by Washington, or lectured from afar, is the common experience. Exceptions are to be found in Venezuela, where its embattled president, Hugo Chavez, complains that the US is paying far too close an interest in efforts to eject him from office; and in Cuba, which was singled out for the usual ill-informed, self-serving criticism typical of Mr Bush. What is uncommonly interesting now, however, is the rising level of resistance to US policies and US neglect that is manifest among large and small Latin American countries alike.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1123229,00.html