October 03, 2005

The Bolivarian Bloc

The Bush administration has, overall, done a fine job of foreign policy. Controlling proliferation, destabilizing and toppling terror sponsors, sowing the seeds of democracy.

But when it comes time to write the retrospectives, one glaring error will mar his legacy: Bush has ignored Latin America. For our first Spanish-speaking president it's a strange omission, though he's certainly had justifiable demands that took his attention elsewhere.

The next president will have to face down a creeping anti-Americanism that is advancing through the Latin world, led by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in collusion with Castro from Cuba. His minions have already successfully brought down two governments in Bolivia and he is establishing a television network to consolidate his influence across the continent. Brazil's Lula has mellowed a bit but he's still redder than a parboiled lobster. The Communists are winning.

Today the Washington Post brings word that Chavez is undermining the democratic government of Nicaragua as well. And Chavez' gimp there is a blast from the past--America's old friend, the man whom Reagan nearly blew his whole presidency trying to bring down, the big Sandinista, Daniel Ortega. Of course, depending on the next president, that might be just fine and dandy:

Bush governs in interesting times, and his first responsibility remains the war on Terror. But he needs an affirmative policy for Latin America that begins the rollback of Chavez. We can't let this problem metastasize anymore. What will it profit us if we clean out the madrassas and terror dens of the middle east only to face a hostile continent unified against us to the south?