Bush Heads for Latin America to Counter Appeal of Chávez

President George Bush yesterday promised a series of US-financed measures to help Latin America's poor, in a belated effort to try to combat the growing influence over the continent of the Venezualan president, Hugo Chávez, and other leftwing leaders.

In a bid to shore up US support in Latin America, Mr Bush is due on Thursday to begin a week-long visit to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, which Washington regards as allies, having either rightwing leaders or what Washington regards as moderate leftwingers.

He promised when he was inaugurated six years ago that Latin America would be his number one priority, but his attention has been deflected by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When speaking about Latin America in the past, he has tended to focus on combating drugs. In a speech in Washington yesterday, he put the stress on helping the continent's poor: one in four live on or under $2 a day. His initiatives, relatively modest, are aimed at education, health and small businesses.

It will be his first visit to Latin America since a trip in 2005 that became a public relations disaster when he faced huge street protests in Brazil and Argentina. As part of his wooing of Latin America's leaders, Mr Bush is to host the Brazilian president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, at his retreat at Camp David later this month.

Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's national security adviser, denied yesterday that the administration had ignored Latin America. He said the US had doubled development aid, as well as military and anti-drug-trafficking programmes, in the past six years, from $800m (£416m) to $1.6bn. But he added: "Poverty, inequality and social exclusion in the Americas are unacceptably high."

However, Colombia, which is engaged in a conflict with drug traffickers, has been the largest recipient of Washington's aid. US aid to Latin America as a whole is due to drop to $300m next year.

Mr Chávez, one of Mr Bush's most vocal critics, has been distributing some of Venezuela's oil wealth round the continent, including helping Argentina with its debts and building roads and schools in Bolivia. However, a continent-wide survey by the Chile-based Latinobarometro group last year gave Mr Bush more positive ratings in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala, while Mr Chávez was ahead in Uruguay. Argentina was found to be the most anti-Bush country, but the US president enjoyed a slight lead, by 30% to 28%, over Mr Chávez in Latin America as a whole.