Excuse me, Mr. Bush, but what the hell do you call it? Gentle persuasion?
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'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 daddyAfter 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.
