Press Release
March 30, 2006

Latin America Fall Out from Bush Administration Foreign Policy
New report examines the United States’ tarnished image in the region

Latin America’s tilt to the left has been used to explain a surge in “anti-American” sentiment. Tarnished Image: Latin America Perceives the United States instead locates a major source of this sentiment in specific, recent U.S. policies to which Latin American publics, governmental leaders and press are reacting. "Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes is dispatched on world tours to burnish the U.S. image abroad. Public relations isn't what's needed: policy change is," said Latin America Working Group director Lisa Haugaard.

The report by the Latin America Working Group Education Fund examines Latin American editorials, op-eds and news coverage which have vividly lamented the Bush Administration’s choice to disregard international human rights standards, especially regarding the treatment of prisoners, and to ignore international mechanisms of cooperation, launching a preemptive war. Nothing reveals this discontent with U.S. human rights policy more starkly than the decision by a dozen Latin American nations faced with U.S. sanctions to turn down a portion of their military and economic aid over a moral principle—their right to full access to the International Criminal Court.

In the fourth Summit of the Americas in November 2005, a growing block of Latin American leaders and civil society groups challenged the unbudging support by subsequent Republican and Democratic administrations for economic policies that are perceived as failing to deliver equitable development. Declining levels of development aid and disaster relief add to the sense that the United States’ neighborly generosity is on the wane. The new symbol of the U.S.-Latin America divide, however, is the increasingly fortified fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, called by Latin American leaders “an affront to Latin America” or “a return to intolerance and the failure of dialogue.”

Despite these differences, the report notes that most of Latin America’s diverse center-left governments actively seek a productive, positive relationship with the United States. The United States is facing a more assertive Latin America, and will have to adapt to this maturing relationship. “Yet the United States could make choices that would help to mend the rift,” said LAWGEF Executive Director Lisa Haugaard. “This has to begin with our own adherence to international human rights standards. But it also should include listening to our neighbors on trade, aid, border policy and immigration.”

See the full report (executive summary on page 2) at:
http://www.lawg.org/docs/tarnishedimage.pdf (pdf)

For more information, contact: Lisa Haugaard, (202) 546-7010; lisah@lawg.org