By Andy Urban, PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty
So much for a bit of a vacation. In recent months, to use an apt cliché, trouble seems to follow President George W. Bush wherever he goes. His weeklong visit to various Central and Southern American countries that ended on March 14, was not a trip marked by Guatemalans, Mexicans, and so on, greeting him with open arms. To begin with, Bush’s entire relationship to this region has been troubled by an unfulfilled promise – that his presidency would pay greater attention to Central and Southern American countries than his predecessors in the Clinton administration. After September 11, this promise went out the window. In addition, Bush’s trip to the region was shadowed by a strategically timed jaunt undertaken by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez took the opportunity to bash Bush as it were, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Although I am personally no fan of Chavez’s recent acts of censorship over the Venezuelan media, it is nonetheless enjoyable to see him dog the President and ruin the staged visits he was making. Add to all of this the protests that accompanied Bush’s visit – some of which ended in violence and perhaps excessive police force against demonstrators (as the very last paragraph of this LA Times article describes [link]), and you can see why the man often chooses to squirrel himself away in Texas.
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