Diplomatic Challenges Face Rice on Her First Latin American Tour
BRASILIA, Brazil — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday began her first official trip to Latin America, a region that is suddenly posing challenges to American diplomacy.
On the eve of her arrival here for meetings with Brazilian officials, Rice praised South America's "remarkable" progress away from dictatorships, saying it was in some ways leading the trend toward democratic reform that the Bush administration was trying to promote around the world.
Yet in recent months, U.S. officials have found themselves facing an escalating confrontation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and have discovered that neighboring countries are largely unwilling to join efforts to isolate him.
U.S. differences with Latin American leaders were also visible this month when representatives to the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States refused, in a series of votes, to install the Washington-backed candidate to head the group.
And the recent rise of new governments in Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador that are left-leaning or less pro-U.S. than their predecessors suggests there is more resistance ahead to Washington's efforts to spread free-market policies.
The most serious rift is with Chavez, who last weekend broke off a 35-year-old military exchange program with the United States and expelled four U.S. military instructors he accused of trying to stir up unrest.
U.S. officials accuse Chavez, a former army colonel who is close to Cuban President Fidel Castro, of undermining democratic institutions by imposing restrictions on the media and manipulating the judiciary. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently complained that Chavez was planning unnecessarily large arms purchases, and some Pentagon officials speculated that the weapons might be destined for insurgents in Colombia and other countries.
But Chavez says his populist policies are intended to improve the lives of millions of poor Venezuelans who have not benefited from the country's oil wealth. His government has defended the arms purchases as necessary to outfit the nation's armed forces.
U.S. officials believe the best way to deal with Chavez is the way they are trying to get North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to give up his nuclear ambitions -- by working with neighbors to apply collective pressure.
