Rice heads to Chile to improve US standing

WASHINGTON
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to Chile on Friday for the inauguration of its first woman president, in a region where Washington has dwindling allies and leftist leaders are on the rise.

During her two-day trip to Chile, Rice will hold a host of meetings with Latin American leaders, including Bolivia's President Evo Morales, a coca farmer with close ties to communist Cuba and Venezuela who has described himself as a "nightmare" for Washington.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is off the list of intended meetings for Rice, unless the two have a chance encounter at functions planned for the inauguration on Saturday of Chile's new president, Michelle Bachelet.

Latin American experts suggested Rice should use this trip to improve U.S. standing in the region where many say the United States is out of touch and to move the focus away from Venezuela-U.S. tensions.

Outgoing Chilean president Ricardo Lagos said last month the United States and Venezuela should tone down their rhetorical outbursts to improve hemispheric relations.

"Rice has an enormous task to repair the present disarray in which we find U.S.-Latin American relations," said Larry Birns of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a liberal think-tank.

Part of the problem, said Birns, was that the United States viewed Latin America through the prism of Cuba and Venezuela, adding that if it was Rice's goals to win support among Latin American leaders to isolate Chavez, she would be disappointed.

"He (Chavez) is popular because he needles the United States and he talks like the average Latin American would talk," said Birns.

MORALES MEETING

Several experts said a meeting between Rice and Morales would help improve Washington's image in the region.

"It will have a tremendous symbolic value that the United States is interested in having relations with the first indigenous president of a very poor country," said Peter Hakim of the think-tank Inter-American Dialogue.

Chilean analyst Patricio Navia said Rice's attendance at Bachelet's inauguration was important as Chile was one of Washington's best friends in the area and Rice could use the time to rebuild relations with others.

"Most understand that good relations with the United States are very important," said Navia, a political scientist at New York University and Chile's Diego Portales University.

Much of Latin America is under leftist leadership, posing a dilemma for Washington and its democracy agenda.

Julia Sweig, a Latin American expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was strong suspicion among many Latin American leaders over the U.S. democracy agenda.

"Democracy ought to be America's greatest strength but when the U.S. says democracy they (Latin American leaders) see empire and imperialism," said Sweig.

She advised Rice to "moderate her language" and make clear the United States did not have a problem with leftist leaders coming to power.

One area where there was also suspicion was Washington's own handling of human rights issues, particularly following the abuse by U.S. soldiers of prisoners in Iraq and detainees held at a U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"All of a sudden, Latin America is saying that the U.S. is not playing by the same rules as everyone else and this provokes an underlying distrust of the U.S.," said Hakim.