However much that (Guatemalan) President Berger and Vice-President Stein strain to explain to Bush the viewpoint of the migrants, he is not going to understand anything because he does not understand Spanish and has never understood problematic Latin America nor the right of the people to forge their own destiny.

 

Neither can we expected a dignified attitude from the government because they represent a class that only looks after its own interests.

 

The protests in Guatemala against the presence of Bush takes on a special relevance because it has been the young and the women who have taken to the streets, daubed walls with paint, shouted slogans and put up banners of dignity in the name of a people suffering the consequences not only of the invasion of 1954 but also the permanent presence of police agents who enforce order so that policies harmful to the interests of the people can be implemented. It is the young, men and women who still have blood in their veins, who shouted out at the top of their lungs: “Bush, murderer” and “we don’t want or wish to be a North American colony” while the bourgeois, the presidential candidates and the political leaders stayed at home or kept away from the streets where the protests were taking place.

 

We can understand how relations are like between the (United) States and the rulers, but we cannot accept that they slap us on the face one day and then extend their hands as if nothing happened before. Guatemala, however small it may be, is a state that deserves respect and the government elected to represent us should demand that dignity. Dignity cannot be priced and, as if it were nothing, the authorities roll out carpets, allow the deployment of foreign forces and abusive searches and take videos of those who demonstrate in the streets rejecting their presence and arrogance. In the march last Saturday (March 11), it was embarrassing to see the sad part of our security forces in guarding the embassy in place of truly guaranteeing the security of the citizens. It was infuriating to see the thugs recording the profiles of the demonstrators.

 

Emphatically, we do no want that a gringo government keeps treating us as slaves; we demand respect; we demand that our government show dignity — even for once — and, though Bush does not understand Spanish, we demand that he understand the message or that his staff translate it for him. (Ends)

 

 

Editorial in El Tiempo, Colombia

 

For Colombia, the key points with the United States depend less on the White House than on the Congress of that country and its new majority.

 

With the sun behind him and his popularity on the rocks, George W. Bush arrives in Bogota on a lightning visit of six hours. The tour of six days, with stops in Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico, is an attempt to show interest in the region that was asking for attention for six years. Colombia certainly has got it, with the multi-million (dollar) investment in Plan Colombia and the free trade negotiations, but little can be expected in the six short hours

 

Six years after Bush promised that Latin America would be the key in his foreign policy, the President of the United States undertakes a continental tour that many have described not only as being late but also as an irrelevance. It can be understood that the attack of 9/11 changed abruptly the agenda and the priorities of his Administration. But not to the point of forgetting almost entirely the region. The visit has not got much prominence in the United States media, the international concerns of which centre on Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

While Bush was busy with the Middle East and the war against terror, a leftist wave was sweeping through Latin America and its most radical and successful representative, Hugo Chavez, was noticeably gaining prominence from the petro dollars. The Latin America to which Bush returns presents a political map much less favourable to his interests. That is why, perhaps, the careful language against Chavez and also his visits to Brazil and Uruguay.

 

These could appear to be intended at taking advantage of the differences at the heart of the Latin American Left. Just while Chavez and the Argentine Nestor Kirchner starred in an alternative summit, Bush signed in Brazil an agreement to convert ethanol into a global fuel to compete with petroleum and reaffirmed another with the Uruguay of Tabare Vazquez for a free trade agreement. Two governments of the Latin American Left confirmed their interest in a commercial alliance with the ‘imperium’ of which their other colleagues do not want to know anything about. Brief stopovers, anyway, but with strategic intent. The other two, are in Guatemala, basically as a gesture of appreciation for its support in the Iraq crusade, and in Mexico, key neighbour with which he has the dispute over immigration but is looking to consolidate the alliance with a friendly government.

 

Colombia is a case apart. This Latin American country can least complain about lack of attention on the part of Washington; as testimony is the $4,000 million invested in Plan Colombia, the $3,600 more announced for the second part and the ten times Bush and Uribe have met in Washington, Cartagena and other places. Lula was invited to Camp David at the end of this month: Uribe already has been to the Texan ranch of Crawford.

 

It is evident – and Bush and other high functionaries have already said it – this brief visit is, above all, a demonstration of support on the part of the United States President for his Colombian colleague in the middle of the “para” politics scandal, the biggest crisis that the latter has confronted.

 

But this Bush is very different from the one that came before. His prestige, which was 70% and which Uribe enjoys, has fallen to 30%. The man, who passed a vote through Congress for a free trade treaty with Central America, now says there will be one big battle to get approval for the ones negotiated with Colombia and Peru. The $600 or $700 million every year that the Democrats in the opposition passed with hardly any protest now faces a serious challenge, complicated by the exploding crisis of “para” politics”.

 

Though it is desirable, for example, that the anti-drugs strategy, which is stagnant and far from the desired results, is revised thoroughly, it would be infantile to think that anything is going to change Bush’s tight schedule in Bogota. Differently from Brazil, where agreements were signed, the key points for Colombia depend less on the President than on the United States Congress.

 

Translated from Spanish by Supriyo Chatterjee

[email protected]

 

Sources:

1.      Bush Does Not Understand Spanish, El Periódico, Guatemala, March 12, 2007

2.        Editorial, El Tiempo, Bogota, March 11, 2007

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