Bush Targets Venezuela's Chavez in Tough Speech

November 6, 2005
Bush Targets Venezuela's Chavez in Tough Speech
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and LARRY ROHTER / NY Times
original

BRASILIA, Nov. 6 - President Bush, in tough remarks aimed at Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, called on Latin America today to choose between two competing futures - an American-supported "vision of hope" and another that "seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades."

Such a democratic retrenchment, the president said, would be "playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."

Mr. Bush spoke before Brazilian business leaders, diplomats and students at the luxury Blue Tree Park Hotel, in an isolated section of the capital, and did not mention Mr. Chavez by name.

But his barbs at the populist president were clear, and were in effect Mr. Bush's response to the fiery populist who led an anti-American rally of more than 25,000 people on Friday in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, while Mr. Bush was attending a summit meeting there.

Mr. Bush's remarks were also directed in general at Latin America, where recent financial shocks have led to a disenchantment in young democracies like Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, in particular, that have not delivered the social and economic justice expected at their birth two decades ago. The administration worries that the region may slip into the authoritarianism of the past, and that other leaders like Mr. Chavez may emerge.

"Only a generation ago, this was a continent plagued by military dictatorship and civil war," Mr. Bush said. "Yet the people of this continent defied the dictators, and they claimed their liberty."

For his Brazilian audience, Mr. Bush's words were not abstract but a vivid reminder of their own recent history. Democracy was only restored here in 1985, after 21 years of right-wing military rule.

The speech was both a promotion of Mr. Bush's vision of democracy, a central theme of his second term, and an implicit response to criticism in the region that the United States is too unilateral in its actions. Mr. Bush reaffirmed American support for the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank, the two main bodies of regional cooperation.

"Freedom is the gift of the Almighty to every man and woman in this world, and today this vision is the free consensus of a free Americas," Mr. Bush said, offering a favorite presidential formulation to the world's largest Roman Catholic country. "It is a vision that is written into the founding document of the Organization of American States."

Mr. Bush, who was in the Brazilian capital on the third day of a four-day trip to Latin America, tried earlier today to minimize the differences with Brazil and three of its neighbors that led to the collapse of trade talks late Saturday in Mar Del Plata.

Standing at the side of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Mr. Bush acknowledged that to satisfy Brazil, which has the largest economy in South America and is co-chairman with the United States in the trade talks, he would have to reduce United States tariffs on Brazilian products and also cut back on billions of dollars in subsidies paid to American farmers and agri-businesses.

Mr. da Silva had opposed the American timetable for the talks in Mar Del Plata, preferring to await the outcome of global negotiations sponsored by the World Trade Organization. Brazil has long complained that trade barriers have limited its ability to sell products like oranges, sugar and cotton in the United States, and has in fact obtained rulings in its favor from the World Trade Organization.

"I heard that loud and clear," Mr. Bush said under a tent at Granja do Torto, Mr. da Silva's weekend farm just outside the capital. "And so recently I made a statement, or a series of statements, that said the United States will reduce subsidies and tariffs, so long as we get the same treatment from trading partners."

Mr. Bush pledged to work with Mr. da Silva while acceding to the political reality in both the United States and Brazil. "He's got to be convinced, just like the people of America must be convinced, that a trade arrangement in our hemisphere is good for jobs, is good for the quality of life," Mr. Bush said.

Mr. da Silva and Mr. Bush came to Brasilia directly from Mar del Plata, where they had been unable to agree on trade issues in a final communique that was supposed to represent the views of all 34 countries taking part in the summit meeting.

"The conditions do not exist to attain a hemisphere free-trade accord that is balanced and fair, with access to markets, that is free of subsidies and distorting practices," a clause in the communique said, at Brazil's insistence.

The two men met for more than 90 minutes on this morning, accompanied only by their foreign ministers and national security advisers. The Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said the agenda had ranged from the trade situation to regional security issues, including Venezuela and Mr. Chavez, and Brazil's campaign to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

"There was a very good personal chemistry," Mr. Amorim told reporters after the meeting. "Both men are pragmatists, focused on results."

At one point, Mr. da Silva even exhibited a map of his country, which is larger than the continental United States, and took Mr. Bush on a talking tour of his country. "Wow, Brazil is big," Mr. Amorim quoted the American president as responding.

After their appearance together, the two presidents and their wives headed off to Mr. da Silva's residence for an outdoor Brazilian-style barbecue that Mr. Bush later pronounced "unbelievably good." The menu included several premium cuts of beef, as well as lamb, oxtail and cheese.

But Mr. da Silva also used the occasion to make a political point. Though Brazil has the largest cattle herd in the world, its exports of beef have been crippled in recent weeks by an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease that has led more than 50 countries to suspend their imports. By serving Brazilian beef to Mr. Bush, Mr. da Silva was saying that there is no cause for the rest of the world to be alarmed.

"Ours is the best meat in the world," Mr. Amorim boasted, "and also the cheapest."
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