Clinton Seeks to Mend Latin America Ties After Obama Hope Faded

[Judi Lynn]

Clinton Seeks to Mend Latin America Ties After Obama Hope Faded
By Daniel Cancel

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will seek to repair strained ties with Latin America during a five-nation tour this week after early optimism about a new relationship under President Barack Obama fizzled.

The toughest leg of her journey may come today, when she’ll cross paths with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the inauguration of Uruguayan President-elect Jose “Pepe” Mujica. Chavez has been a vocal critic of the U.S.’s handling of the military coup in Honduras, its agreement to boost troops in Colombia and limited progress in improving relations with Cuba.

From Uruguay, Clinton will go to Chile, where she’ll see some of the destruction wrought by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Feb. 27, killing hundreds. Her trip to the region is designed to surmount doubts from regional leaders including Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about Obama’s promise last year for a “new direction” in relations.

“She’s on a damage control agenda,” said Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, professor of international relations at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires. “If she comes with an agenda she will be listened to, but if she came only for a goodwill tour some leaders will ask her why she even bothered.”

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=asOi2jWmOcFA

[Downwinder]

1. Valenzuela bombed so now it is up to Clinton. BO next? n/t

[rabs]

2. Pepe Mujica, former Tupamaro leftist guerrilla leader who was tortured

and imprisoned in the 1970s under the U.S.-tolerated military dictatorship and now the democratically elected president of Uruguay with what's her name in Montevideo today.

[protocol rv]

3. They'll love her if she shows them the money

Or a good quality free trade agreement.