President tries to reach out to Latin Americans

WASHINGTON – President Bush, laying the groundwork for an eight-day trip to Latin America that’s likely to deepen the struggle for influence with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, acknowledged Monday that U.S.-backed economic policies and free-trade agreements have failed to lift millions of Latin Americans from poverty.

Sprinkling his speech with Spanish words and phrases, Bush announced a series of relatively modest efforts to help the poor, including a plan to send U.S. military medical teams to the region.

“The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives, and this has led some to question the value of democracy,” he told members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“The working poor of Latin America need change, and the United States of America is committed to that change.”

The speech was the opening shot in a battle with Chavez that will play out during the president’s travels. After flying to Brazil on Thursday, Bush will stop in Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

Chavez, a leftist who recently called Bush the “king of liars,” also will be on the road. He’ll host an anti-Bush rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday before Bush’s stop in neighboring Uruguay.

The five-nation swing also is intended to calm criticism that the president has neglected Latin America and to show that he can put aside ideological differences in the spirit of cooperation.

His trip comes as Latin America is emerging from an unprecedented year of elections, with more than a dozen new leaders taking office. Most of the victors are left wing, although most also favor free enterprise.

In Monday’s speech, Bush said he wants to reach out to Latin Americans who “remain stuck in poverty and shut off from the promises of the new century.”

“My message to those ‘trabajadores y campesinos’ is, you have a friend in the United States of America,” he said.

But many Latin Americans don’t consider Bush their friend.

A poll last fall of 20,000 residents in 18 countries found that Bush and Chavez were equally unpopular, with approval ratings of just 39 percent. Only Fidel Castro fared worse, with 27 percent.

Although U.S. officials want to provide a counterweight to Chavez, they don’t want the trip to become a direct contest between the two leaders. In fact, Bush generally avoids mentioning the Venezuelan leader because of concerns that it would enhance Chavez’s stature.

Still, there’s no question that Chavez is the uninvited guest on the fringe of Bush’s trip. Bush has yet to find the best way to deal with Chavez, said Peter Hakim, president of Inter-American Dialogue, an organization that promotes closer hemispheric ties.

“Do you ignore him? Do you confront him? Do you try to get other countries to confront him?” Hakim asked.

“So far, the U.S. hasn’t had much success with any of those.”