Latin America Must Save Itself
By Rog er E. Hernan dez correspondent

Before leaving on a six-day Latin America trip meant to counter leftist Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, President Bush tried to play the mild-mannered diplomat.

The purpose of the trip, he said gently, is to "find ways to work together for the common good." When asked about Chavez, who has made it a habit to insult him personally, Bush did not take the bait but merely observed that "governmentrun industry is inefficient and will lead to more poverty."

The president was trying to sound respectful of Latin America's touchy sovereignty.

Too late. Six years of bullying and incompetence have shredded U.S. prestige throughout the world, Latin America being no exception.

If you are a citizen of the United States, you should be appalled. But if you are a citizen of a Latin American country, you should be more concerned about your own leader.

The main responsibility for Latin America's scary leftward lurch does not lie with George Bush, no matter how unhelpful his policies. The responsibility lies with Latin Americans themselves. And only Latin Americans can change course.

Will they? Do they even want to?

One hopeful sign is that the people of the region describe themselves as political moderates. A December survey by the Chilean pollster Latinobarometro asked interviewees (from every country in the region except Cuba) to identify their political stance on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 the extreme left and 10 the extreme right. Surprisingly for a region said to be marching leftward, the overall score was 5.4 -- the classic center-right. Venezuela came in at 5.6, slightly more right-leaning than the regionwide average.

So why did Venezuela elect Chavez?

Latinobarometro speculates that although conservative and liberal parties address what matters most in Latin America -- inequality, corruption, poverty -- "the right, although it is more numerous, has simply not been credible. ... The left appears to have conquered the center and, with it, power."

Which is fine when the left is moderate, like Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil. Which is not so great when the left is like Chavez's.

What Latin American moderate -- center left or center-right -- can help the region step back from the abyss on the left and move toward political pluralism and Euro-style social democracy?

President Nestor Kirchner of democratic Argentina seems more interested in twitching Uncle Sam's beard. Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would have to fight off the far left of his political party. Chilean Michelle Bachelet, whose country has gone furthest in the race to modernity, is busy helping Chile stay on course. Colombia's Alvaro Uribe has his hands full fighting guerrillas and drug gangs.

There's Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, but he is from little Costa Rica. Which leaves Mexico's Felipe Calderon. He has the opportunity to lead his country, and then the region, toward a political maturity that rejects reflective anti-Americanism and embraces the modern world -- even if George W. Bush is the American president. n

Roger Hernandez is a syndicated columnist and writer-in-residence at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.