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George Bush Visits Poverty
// The White House enters the competition for Latin America
US President George Bush sets off for a one-week tour through Latin American countries tomorrow. Ahead of his visit to the continent’s five countries, Bush boded financial aid to them, saying that it is the USA’s duty to help them struggle against poverty. Yet, the real purpose of the visit is to try to weaken the influence of the region’s chief anti-US politician, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, who will visit Argentina soon. However, political experts think that Bush will fail here, -- the White House is hopelessly losing the battle for the Southern Hemisphere.
US President George Bush will visit five Latin American countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Columbia, Guatemala, and Mexico. Bush said his purpose is to help overcome poverty in the region. Yet, Argentine political expert Atilio Boron said: “It is evident that the key purpose of Bush’s visit is to unite US allies in Latin America, where Chavez’s influence is felt more and more.”
Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Stephen Hedley refuted the assumptions that the US president’s current visit is an “anti-Chavez tour”. Hedley underlined that in the last six years the U.S. doubled the amount of financial aid to its Southern neighbors, increasing it up to $1.6 billion. Yet, he admitted that Washington’s help to Latin America will drop down to $300 million next year.
On the contrary, Venezuela has been generously feeding many countries of the region, thanks to its rich oil deposits. Hugo Chavez has recently suggested creating a regional bank in Latin America which would give low-interest loans to disadvantaged population. Chavez believes it will reduce the Southern Hemisphere’s dependency on US financial establishments. On Friday and Saturday, Chavez will be in Argentina, so as to head many-thousand-people anti-US protest rallies.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 07, 2007
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