[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. still hopeful about Latin America -- or so it says *** In a region where politics has generally moved in cycles -- dictatorships in the '70s, center-left democracies in the '80s, and pro-business governments in the '90s -- a leftist victory in Brazil could influence Argentines to elect a leftist president in their own upcoming elections late this year or next year, and could encourage Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chávez, to radicalize his ''Bolivarian Revolution,'' the alarmed Latin American diplomats say. ''The regional scenario in the second half of this year will be critical,'' says Argentina's ambassador to the United States, Diego Guelar. ``The anti-free market credo is gaining ground. There is a mistaken perception in the region that Argentina was the best student, that opened its economy the most, and that this was the reason why it ended so badly.''

But several U.S. officials reacted with skepticism to these gloomy scenarios. ''There is a general [regional] commitment to market economies and open trade that remains firm,'' says Lino Gutierrez, the No. 2 official at the U.S. State Department's Latin American affairs office. ``We are encouraged that the Argentine government is beginning to take the steps necessary to put the country on better economic and financial footing.''

Asked about the South American domino scenario, another senior Bush administration official noted that the same kinds of theories were floating around a little more than year ago, when many predicted that populist former President Alan García would win in Peru, and that leftist former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega would win in Nicaragua, and that the whole region would move left. It didn't happen. Bush administration officials are confident that, over the next three months, the U.S. Congress will give President Bush ''fast-track'' authority to expedite new free-trade agreements, and that this will lead almost immediately to expanded trade benefits for Andean countries, and to the signing of a bilateral free-trade agreement with Chile. ''All of these things are going to change the atmosphere in this hemisphere,'' a senior Bush administration official says.***

I hope they’re taking this seriously, very seriously.

[willyone]

Who taking what seriously? You can't be serious. Look at all the new Jorge Bush voters that will result from this. The Brazilians can now fight the Mexicans for Aztlan. I can hardly wait.