G. Bush's Latin American Fiasco

Lately US President George Bush has certainly been out of luck. The mounting criticism of his Iraq policies in the US itself and the scandals surrounding the murky deeds of his closest associates have led to an unprecedented drop in G. Bush's popularity rating.

Steadily declining is also the US president's international prestige. The latest instance of it is the failure of the inter-American summit held on Washington's initiative in the Argentine resort town of Mar del Plata.

The main objective of the meeting of 34 continental leaders was to sign an agreement on the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The idea of creating the FTAA had first been raised by the US in 1994 at an Americas summit in Miami (Florida). But Latin American leaders who took part in this latest summit failed to agree on the question, despite the strong pressure of the US delegation under G. Bush. The US President even spent three hours more at the summit than had originally been proposed, in the hope that an agreement on the FTAA would still be reached.

International experts point out that the summit in Mar del Plata was thwarted by the quite predictable contradictions between the US and a number of Latin American countries. The latter believe, not without serious reason, that the US-proposed plan jeopardizes their economic independence. Misgivings have also been voiced that the Washington-sponsored agreement on the FTAA is aimed at strengthening the US control of not only economic life, but also political processes on the continent.

The obvious leader of the anti-American bloc at the summit was President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez who came to Argentina with a motto of "FTAA agreement is dead, and we shall bury it here". After the unfavorable - for the US - end of the summit H. Chavez said: "Today the big loser was Mr. Bush". Also Argentine President Nestor Kirchner blamed the US policies for the economic misfortunes of his country. Most leaders, including US President G. Bush, had left the summit before it closed.

The member countries of the summit signed an appendix to the final declaration of the meeting reflecting the viewpoints of the two opposing side. The only thing the US succeeded in was the confirmation by 29 countries out of 34 of their intention to resume talks on the creation of the FTAA in 2006. At the same time five countries opposing the creation of the FTAA (the President of Venezuela has romantically called them 'the five musketeers") stated their negative attitude toward the idea of the FTAA, with Venezuela rejecting it outright and Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay inclined to wait till the results of the WTO meeting in Hong Kong next December become known.

Observers point out that the failure of the summit was largely predestined by the extremely negative attitude of the people in Latin American countries towards the USA. The summit in Argentina was accompanied by mass anti-American protests and disorders. Thousands of people took to the streets protesting against US policies. They were joined by anti-globalists who came from all over the world. During the disorders a bank and offices of telephone companies were set on fire, and show-windows broken. According to Argentine media data, 20 protesters were injured in clashes with the police, and another 64 people arrested.

On the whole, the summit demonstrates that there are no indications of the US succeeding in the foreseeable future in persuading its Latin American neighbors to accept the FTAA idea. Sentiments are running high in Latin American countries in favor of establishing a new system of relations with their powerful northern neighbor, which would be based on the precedence of their own interests over those of big US transnational corporations.

As for the US administration's assertions that the freedom of trade in conjunction with the development of the private sector and "promotion of democracy" would ensure prosperity to the Americas convince very few people. According to UN data, about 96 million people on the American continent have to survive on less than $1 a day.

G. Bush's fiasco at the Mar del Plata summit has been largely conditioned by the conviction of most Latin Americans that the root cause of their countries' poor economic showing is the limitless cynicism and greed of US monopolies caring only about their super-profits.