Bush Policies Stoke Anti-Yanqui Sentiment

[cal04]

While anti-U.S. sentiment has deep roots in Latin America, particularly among populist and left-wing parties that are winning elections there, specific policies pursued by the administration of Pres. George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress are fueling the growing alienation from Washington, according to a new report. While anti-U.S. sentiment has deep roots in Latin America, particularly among populist and left-wing parties that are winning elections there, specific policies pursued by the administration of Pres. George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress are fueling the growing alienation from Washington, according to a new report.

An analysis of recent public opinion polls, statements by elected leaders, and newspaper editorials and cartoons, the 20-page study details U.S. actions -- from detainee abuse in the "global war on terror" to U.S. aid and immigration policies -- that have stoked anti-U.S. sentiment. "Tarnished Image: Latin America Perceives the United States", released this week by the Latin America Working Group Educational Fund (LAWGEF), also cites the serious damage done by a U.S. law that bans certain kinds of military and economic aid for countries that refuse to sign a treaty pledging that they would not turn over U.S. citizens to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

So far a dozen Latin American and Caribbean nations have turned down the aid rather than accept U.S. demands to exempt its citizens from ICC jurisdiction, according to the report, which notes that the new court is a particularly popular cause in Latin America where accountability for serious abuses of human rights of the kind the ICC was set up to prosecute has proven so difficult to achieve.

The new report, which was released during Thursday's summit meeting of Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canada's new prime minister, Stephen Harper, comes amid growing concern here about relations between Washington and Latin America sparked in major part by the electoral success -- both recent and imminent -- of leftist candidates throughout the continent. That Washington's image in Latin America has been badly tarnished is confirmed by recent surveys. Aside from the Arab and Islamic worlds, where Washington's standing has fallen sharply, particularly since the Iraq invasion, the U.S. -- and Bush, in particular -- gets the least positive ratings in Latin American countries.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0401-01.htm

[MasonJar]

1. Well, at least his (p)residency is good for something. Thanks for

sharing a very interesting article.

[demosincebirth]

2. Checking history , with relations with Latin America,

the U.S. has always, first, looked after the corporate interest in this country and never how it might affect the people of the country they're dealing with. To them, Bushco is everything the Latins despise