He’s unpopular there, too

November 4, 2005

It’s probably too much to ask, but just once I’d like our president to be able to travel abroad to a country that still respects and admires the United States. Argentina, this year’s host of the Summit of the Americas, used to be one of those countries. Not anymore.

A poll by the pro-government leftist daily Pagina 12 this week showed that 58 percent of Argentines oppose Bush’s visit and only 10 percent of Argentines want their foreign policy to move closer to the United States.

Indeed, Argentina, one of the region’s most pro-American countries a decade ago, has become one of the most anti-American countries in Latin America, and one where Castro’s image is ranking the highest, according to comparative polls. Most Argentines blame U.S.-backed free-market policies for the country’s financial collapse of 2001.

Enrique Zuleta Puceiro, who conducted the poll for Pagina 12, says the U.S. war against Iraq and the recent TV images from New Orleans have led many Argentines to reject not only Bush, but the United States as a country.

”America has definitely ceased to be the promised land that many [Argentines] saw five years ago,” Zuleta told the newspaper.

Hmm, five years ago. I wonder what happened five years ago…

Also keep in mind, this drop in foreign support is not just about public relations.

President Bush faced a nasty surprise when he landed here [in Argentina] Thursday: He came to the Fourth Summit of the Americas to push for ways to improve job creation in the region, but found a meeting focused on whether to kill a U.S.-backed plan to create a hemispheric free trade area.

It happened quite unexpectedly. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, after six months of negotiations over a 34-article final summit document that most delegates thought was ready to be signed by the presidents, Argentina — the meeting chair — introduced a new article that effectively killed plans to go forward with the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The 11-year-old plan is the backbone of U.S. policy in the region.

A drop in international support is not without consequences.

Damn leftist terror-sympathizing islamofascist foreigners. We should cut those billions of dollars we give them in foreign aid and send home all their immigrants.

Oops, sorry, thought this was “Little Green Footballs”.

  • Only a man his dumn ass mother could like, and I guess the right wing wacko’s.
    Bush and his cronies have destroyed us in the eyes of the world.

  • It should be noted that the reference to five years ago, in Argentina, probably has a lot more to do with their economy riding high before catastrophically collapsing than it does anything else, including the Bush’s election. Argentina had adopted some free-market policies advocated by Washington (Dems and GOP both) and especially the IMF and World Bank. And they came back and bit them in the ass. Hard. I don’t know the specifics for Argentina but stuff like allowing foreigners to buy their utilities, foreigners who have a tendency to pull their capital out of the country at the first sign of trouble, as opposed to domestics who obviously would not. Bush has probably never repudiated those policies, though. And he seems to want more of the same. The FTAA means more markets for America, but until we drop our protections for the only things the South Americans would be good at selling to us (ie food, textiles,) it just means getting screwed one more time for South America. They are right to oppose something that would only hurt them. Sorry for rambling.

  • UMMMMMMM, are there are any countries that still respect and admire the US while George Bush is president?

  • Was John Bolton at the meeting? This sounds alot like what he did as soon as he got to the UN. Pulled a rabbit out of his hat. Apparently the OAS is not without rabbits, as well.

  • Great piece. I quoted you. And we have quite a discussion going since one of our regular visitors is in Argentina and giving us live feedback on what is really going on. It’s all here, including the link to this story. Thanks!

  • Greetings. Thank you.

    Perhaps some, if not many nations are simply weary after “Open Veins” decades of near genocidal destruction in Latin America. From covert action through paramilitary presence, which left mass graves in totured indigenous regions, to the poisoned and barren once lush rainforests and lands of a large continent; these are the policies shaped and administered by the speech President Eisenhower warned the American public, if not the world, of the global danger of the Military Industrial Complex, culminating to our current unpopular war president.

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