A
Russian take on George W.’s
Latin American tour —
‘Calderon's
hospitality
saves Bush's neck’
By Alexander Gabuyev
President George W. Bush has
completed his tour of Latin America, which the U.S. president had hoped would help shore up
Washington's
position in the strategically crucial region. However, in the final tally his
visit was a miserable affair: Mr. Bush failed to resolve a single important
question, and his every footstep was dogged by anti-American protests. Towards
the end of his trip, the American president could even have suffered wounds to
more than his morale if not for the hospitality of Mexican President Felipe
Calderon.
Mr. Bush's
visit to Mexico was
symptomatic of the state of affairs throughout his week-long trip to Latin America, which has been assessed by many as the most
resounding diplomatic failure of all of the trips he has taken during his entire
presidency.
Before Mexico he visited Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and Guatemala, and
in each country his sojourn was marred by anti-American demonstrations that
attracted thousands of protestors. Mr. Bush traveled everywhere under the
protection of hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and even in fairly hospitable
Colombia (where the local police did a better job of dispersing protestors than
their Brazilian or Uruguayan counterparts) he had to cut his visit short due to
terrorist threats. To add insult to injury, not a single one of the president's
Latin American colleagues was satisfied with the results of any of the talks.
Yet another unpleasant
surprise for Mr. Bush was the counter-tour launched by Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, who heaped abuse on the U.S. president from stages in Argentina, Bolivia, and Nicaragua to
rapturous applause from the crowds. He concluded his tour on Monday in Port-au-Prince, where he spoke several times by telephone
with Cuban leader Fidel Castro concerning an agreement between the two leaders
to provide joint assistance to the impoverished island nation of
Haiti.
Mexico was a key stop on Mr. Bush's
schedule. Felipe Calderon, who considers relations with Washington to be a top priority, was sworn in as
Mexico's new president on December 1
of last year. Incidentally, many critics of Mr. Calderon allege that he won last
July's elections, in which he beat Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador by 0.1%, only
thanks to support from Washington. The first encounter between George
Bush and Felipe Calderon, however, bore no resemblance to a meeting
of two allies.
Barely pausing to greet his
American guest, Mr. Calderon immediately launched into criticism of Mr. Bush's
tightening of U.S. immigration policy, which has
largely impacted Mexicans. Much of the Mexican president's wrath was directed at
legislation signed by President Bush last October that authorizes the
construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
In another manifestation of
the U.S. government's harsh stance on
immigration, over the last six months several Mexican citizens have been shot
and killed by American border guards as they attempted to cross the border
illegally. This enrages Mexicans at home, many of whom either harbor dreams of
moving to the U.S. themselves
or are being supported by relatives working in the United States.
In addition, Mr. Calderon's
inability to resolve the immigration issue with Washington has already been seized upon by his leftist
political opponents: "What good is our pro-American president, if he can't even
make any deals with his handlers in Washington?" jeers the left.
Another obstacle in relations
between the U.S. and
Mexico is the narcotics trade. The
majority of narcotics in the U.S. come through the border with
Mexico, and drug lords wield
unchallenged political sway in many Mexican states. Washington has long insisted that Mexico clamp down on the drug mafia, but now
Felipe Calderon is demanding that the U.S. pay for the Mexican fight
against drugs. "We cannot solve this problem without Washington's help, since the demand for drugs in the
U.S. is so great," Mr. Calderon noted
pointedly.
George Bush's responses to
both questions were entirely inadequate. "I really am trying to convince
Congress to ease up on the immigration law at least a little bit, but I can't
promise anything for sure," squirmed the president. With regard to increased
financing for the struggle against narcotics, Mr. Bush also had nothing to
promise — "I'll see, maybe I can do something for you," he muttered — and the
meeting ended with that.
Nevertheless, Felipe Calderon
did decide to be hospitable and hosted Mr. Bush not in the capital but in the
resort town of Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is possible that this move
saved the American president's life: on Tuesday, while the president was in
Merida, thousands of Mexican leftists staged a
massive demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy in Mexico City.
At first, nothing was out of
the ordinary. The demonstrators carried the usual signs proclaiming "Bush is a
murderer of Iraqi children" and "Georgie, get the hell out of
Mexico." Many of the slogans also
made reference to events of the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. Then, however,
the leftist demonstrators decided to storm the embassy. Throwing themselves at
the police with clubs and metal rods, they began to fight their way through to
the building's entrance, while the police lashed out with batons and tear gas as
the protestors pelted them with rocks. Eventually, the length of the street in
front of the U.S. embassy was spattered with
blood, the building's windows were broken out, and dozens of people landed in
the hospital. Several people were arrested.
That same day Felipe Calderon
again rescued George Bush from the wrath of the Mexican people. In the afternoon
around a hundred angry men wearing sombreros and armed with clubs and stones
surrounded the hotel in Merida where the
U.S. president was staying. Their
fury was only dampened by the news that the president was away from the hotel
having lunch with Mr. Calderon, and in the lull Mexican special-forces arrived
and chased away the protestors.
In the wake of that incident,
Mr. Bush and his wife returned to the hotel, quickly packed their things, and
headed for the airport, where their plane to Washington was already waiting. Thus ended the
U.S. president's ill-fated
trip to Latin America.
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