Bello: A warmer Latin climate for Obama

UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

What does Hillary stand for?

Fly Title: 

Bello

Rubric: 

The region will start to put pragmatism ahead of ideology in dealing with the United States

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LATIN AMERICA can be tricky ground for leaders of the United States. In 1958 Richard Nixon, then the vice-president, survived an attack on his car by enraged students in Caracas. Ronald Reagan was widely mocked after he confused Brazil with Bolivia during a speech in Brasília. At a Summit of the Americas in Argentina in 2005 George W. Bush was greeted by a mass rally organised by the host, Néstor Kirchner, at which his country’s plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas was denounced by Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chávez. Four years later, at a similar summit in Trinidad, Chávez presented Barack Obama with an anti-imperialist tract.
Mr Obama’s staff doubtless thought that their boss would be greeted as a hero at the latest summit in Panama, to be held on April 10th and 11th. At …