Brazilians protest over Bush visit.
And so, six years into his Presidency, with most of Latin America having turned Socialist on his watch, Bush finally heads South. It's almost a textbook definition of "too little, too late".
But they were waiting for him.
Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires - some thirty miles from where Mr Bush is due to meet Uruguay's president, Tabaré Vázquez - across the border in Uruguay, a protest is being led by Bush's nemesis, Hugo Chavez. Indeed, the tour of Latin America is conspicuous in the way that it bounces around but never touches upon Venezuela.Violent clashes were taking place between police and masked protesters in the financial centre of Sao Paulo, the president's first stop. Rioters threw rocks at police who answered with rubber bullets and tear gas bombs. Bystanders fled the smoke-filled streets outside the art museum as running battles erupted. Several loud explosions shook the area.
Earlier protesters in Brazil signalled widespread hostility to the US leader by briefly shutting down an iron mine, invading an ethanol distillery, occupying a bank and unfurling a banner in parliament.A massive security effort will mobilise about 4,000 police officers and soldiers as Mr Bush's cavalcade of 60 vehicles drives through the sprawling metropolis.
"The trip is to remind people that we care," Mr Bush told CNN before his departure. "I do worry about the fact that some say, 'Well, the United States hasn't paid enough attention to us,' or 'The United States really isn't anything more than worried about terrorism.' And when, in fact, the record has been a strong record."Bush's record towards Latin America, traditionally referred to as America's doorstep, has been the worst of any President ever. The idea that Latin America would have been allowed to turn Socialist during the Cold War is simply unthinkable.
Of course, it is Bush's policies in the Middle East that have largely contributed to this outpouring of hatred towards his regime, and the subsequent South American conversion to the left.
I think this region, as much as any other, highlights the failure of the neo-con mindset. Diplomacy is complicated business involving many different people and their different aspirations.
The neo-cons believed that US power meant that they could shape the world according to their beliefs based on nothing other than their military superiority. This proves that, not only are the limitations of US military power being proven under the Bush regime, but the ramifications for the US of ignoring other regions whilst it embroiled itself in Iraq and the wider Middle East are also being highlighted.
Whilst Bush indulged himself in a war of choice in Iraq, South America turned red. That's a Hell of a legacy for a Republican President.
Many analysts say his offerings are too little, too late. "There is very little that the president has to give beyond his presence," Johanna Mendelson Forman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies thinktank, told Cox News. "Our foreign aid assistance packages have all been cut to the region with the exception of our counter-narcotics programme."So, as Bush rattles around South America, Chavez is countering with a tour of his own. And it's unlikely that Bush has enough leverage at this stage to compete with Chavez's pull.
Last week, the Argentine President, Nestor Kirchner, speaking in Caracas, rejected the notion that Argentina or Brazil should "contain President Chavez", whom he called a "brother and a friend". Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, wrote in a recent briefing paper: "The Bush administration is being made aware that its leverage in Latin America is rapidly dissipating. Even well-meaning kinsmen in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, let alone its Central American banana republics, don't always salivate when the bell is rung."In any battle for hearts and minds in Latin America between Bush and Chavez, the wise man would put his money on Chavez.
And that's why Bush's tour is a complete waste of time.
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