American-Latino Immigrants Proudly Assisting the Community

Published: March 7 2007 19:10 | Last updated: March 7 2007 19:10

Even before President George W. Bush set out for his four-day visit to Latin America, a predictable game of rhetorical ping-pong began. In a speech to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this week, Mr Bush pledged to “complete the revolution” for social justice begun by Simon Bolívar.

Comparing the South American liberator to George Washington, Mr Bush said: “Neither Washington nor Bolívar was destined to have children of their own, so that we Americans might call ourselves their children.”

It was clearly meant as a pre-emptive side-swipe at Hugo Chávez, the bombastic Venezuelan president who venerates Bolívar and who is Mr Bush’s most high-profile critic in a region where US influence has sunk to a low.

Mr Chávez did not hold back in his response, accusing the US president of “cynicism and deep ignorance about the reality lived by Latin American people . . . it’s a slap in the face of our people’s dignity”.

While Mr Bush visits allies in the region, Mr Chávez is setting off on a rival tour. Mr Bush starts on Thursday with a trip to Brazil, but as he arrives in Uruguay on Friday, Mr Chávez, who refers to his US counterpart as “Mr Danger”, will touch down in neighbouring Argentina.

The US president included Uruguay on his itinerary to shore up relations with the government of Tabaré Vázquez, which has said it is not benefiting enough from its membership of the South American Mercosur trade bloc and has expressed an interest in bilateral trade deals.

Mr Chávez’s Argentina trip, by contrast, signals his interest in strengthening ties within Mercosur, of which Venezuela is an associate member. On Friday, he is expected to sign a series of agricultural agreements with Néstor Kirchner, the Argentine president.

But he will also use the interest Mr Bush’s trip has generated to heckle the US president from nearer than Caracas. In the evening Mr Chávez will lead a rally at a football stadium in Buenos Aires, organised by local activists to protest against Mr Bush’s trip.

The following day, as Mr Bush heads off to visit Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian president and his closest ally in the region, Mr Chávez will travel to Bolivia to spend the day with President Evo Morales, one of his most outspoken supporters. The two leftist leaders will visit the country’s flood-ravaged eastern lowlands.

Mr Chávez may prove unable to resist following Mr Bush into Central America as well. As Mr Bush heads into Guatemala, there are rumours that the Venezuelan leader may go to Nicaragua, ostensibly to sign a deal to sell cut-price oil.

Stephen Hadley, the US national security adviser, denied this week that Mr Bush’s trip was “an anti-Chávez tour”.

If there were any doubt that Mr Chávez’s rival visits are intended to be an “anti-Bush” tour, the Venezuelan leader said on Tuesday: “We know he comes to try to stop the changes that Latin America is going through and to try to cause problems between us. Gringo, go home.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007