Bush hits the wrong note on Latin tour

President Bush's repeated claim during his weeklong Latin American tour that the United States feels "compassion" toward the region stroked the wrong chord at the wrong time: It was seen in many countries as a condescending remark, which on top of that was not backed by a significant financial commitment.
By my own count, Bush repeated at least 15 times in his tour-related news conferences that the United States is a "compassionate" country.
It sounded weird to many in the region, not only because Bush had virtually forgotten about Latin America after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is supporting a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, but also because Venezuela's petro-populist President Hugo Chavez was simultaneously making headlines promising much more economic aid than the U.S. president.
In a March 7 interview with CNN en Espanol on the eve of the trip, Bush said, "Our country is a compassionate country." At a news conference Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the first stop of his five-nation visit, Bush said that "my trip is to explain, as clearly as I can, that our nation is generous and compassionate."
From then on, it was "compassion" at every stop. At a news conference in Uruguay on Saturday, Bush said U.S. diplomacy is aimed at "expressing the great compassion of the American people." In Guatemala on Monday, Bush said, "We're a decent, compassionate country."
Negative perception
Trouble is, Bush was repeating this line over and over in a region where polls show that a huge majority see his administration as self-interested and stingy.
"Latin America wants trade and investment much more than compassion," Clovis Rossi, a columnist with Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, told me as Bush was winding up his tour on Wednesday.
According to the Bush administration, Bush doubled foreign aid to Latin America from 860 million in 2001 to nearly 1.6 billion in 2006. When you include private donations, the figure soars to 8.5 billion, Bush said.
But critics say that Bush is playing games with the figures: U.S. aid to the region was particularly low in 2001 because Congress had passed a two-year spending bill for Andean countries a year earlier, they say.
While the United States is by far the largest world donor in dollar terms, and its contribution is even larger when trade preferences and family remittances are taken into account, it is the least generous country in relation to the size of its economy among the world's most developed countries, according to the 22-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
While Norway contributes 0.9 percent of its GDP in foreign development assistance, France 0.42 percent and Spain 0.26 percent, the United States gives out only 0.16 percent of its GDP in foreign aid, OECD figures show.
Bush's proposed 2008 budget cuts direct foreign assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean by more than 8 percent. Despite Bush's promises during his trip to provide 385 million for programs to underwrite mortgages for working families and 75 million for helping teach English to young Latin Americans, the proposed budget would cut aid to countries such as Brazil and Mexico.
'Paltry package'
An editorial in the Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo referred to Bush's promises during his visit as a "paltry package." It added that U.S. foreign aid to Latin America amounts to what the United States spends during five days in Iraq, and is "a drop of water" compared with what Chavez is giving out -- or promising to give out -- in the region. Just last week, during his anti-Bush tour, Chavez promised to build a 2.5 billion refinery in Nicaragua, and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, loans and bond purchases to Argentina, Jamaica and Haiti.
My opinion: You and I know that Chavez is a narcissist-Leninist loud mouth, and that most of his promises will never see the light of the day. Still, his petro-largess is making big headlines in the region.
Bush did the right thing ignoring Chavez and -- better late than never -- showing renewed interest in the region.
Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.