Bush leaves Latin America empty-handed

Mexican protesters hold an anti-George Bush banner. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Rory Carroll in Caracas, Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogota and Jo Tuckman in Mexico CityTuesday March 13, 2007Guardian Unlimited

George Bush wrapped up a tour of Latin America tonight with little to show for his six-day swing through the region.

The US president was due to head home with no substantive deals or immediate evidence that the public relations offensive had salvaged Washington's reputation in the five countries he visited.

No breakthroughs had been expected but Mr Bush hoped to soften hostility towards himself and his administration's policies on trade and immigration by expressing concern for the region's poor.

His stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, chosen for their relatively friendly governments, were marked by street protests and lukewarm to cold reviews by local media.

Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, stole some of the attention by denouncing the "little imperial gentleman from the north" during a shadow tour, but he failed to draw his rival into a war of words or score a knockout public relations victory.

Mr Chávez drew some adoring crowds in Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Haiti, and announced several oil-funded aid and trade packages, but his hosts declined to join his verbal attacks on the US.

"Most governments are notably pragmatic these days and are willing to deal with both the Bush and Chávez administrations, and take advantage of opportunities that arise," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank.

"Chávez may have won wallets with his economic deals and promises but his belligerent rhetoric resonated only with a narrow sector. Bush was subdued and kept the cowboy swagger in check, but with resources tied up in Iraq and elsewhere, had little concrete to offer."

Mr Bush's meeting today with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, was overshadowed by anger at a new border fence that the host, who as a pro-market conservative ought to be an ideological soulmate, likened to the Berlin wall.

In an interview with a Mexican newspaper he said he did not have high hopes for the Bush meeting and said he wanted closer ties to Cuba, suggesting that it was too late for Mr Bush to patch up nearly two terms' worth of disappointments beyond the vague hope of pushing a migration accord through Congress.

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