WASHINGTON — President Bush, eager to counter the growing influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, declared Monday that he was heading to Latin America this week as a social reformer committed to alleviating poverty and social injustice.
The emphasis on addressing inequality marks a shift for the president, who has been assailed for stressing free trade and democracy south of the border and ignoring the social ills that continue to stymie the region.
"For too long and in too many places, opportunity in Latin America has been determined by the accident of birth rather than by the application of talents and initiative," Bush said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Bush is set to leave Thursday on a weeklong hemispheric trek that is to include stops in Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Guatemala and Mexico.
Bush's itinerary doesn't include Venezuela, but the pugnacious Chavez, who has used his oil riches to take up the mantle of Fidel Castro and generations of \o7Yanqui\f7-bashers, looms large in a region Washington has historically considered its "backyard."
With no major trade deal or political breakthrough imminent, Bush in effect has signaled his intention to present a counter-version of Chavez's well-crafted image of a social crusader standing up to U.S. "imperialism" at every opportunity.
However, Bush, whose poll numbers are at least as bad in Latin America as at home, is likely to meet skepticism and protests as he tries to portray a kinder, gentler face of U.S. policy.
"Evidently the principal reason for Bush's trip to the region is to try and put back together the United States' network of alliances in Latin America, where Chavez's influence is stronger each day," said Atilio Boron, an Argentine political analyst.
A top Bush administration official rejected the widely held notion in Latin America that the president's longest trip to the region is aimed at checking the influence of Chavez.
"We want to remind people that there is another side to U.S. policy," said the senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While the Bush administration has been tied down in the Middle East, Chavez has helped redraw Latin America's political map, in large part by doling out billions of dollars' worth of oil subsidies for allied nations and re-energizing socialist strategies consigned to the scrap heap a decade ago. Critics call his influence overblown, but Chavez has befriended a new generation of populist and leftist leaders and inspired political allies from Panama City to Santiago, Chile.
