Hey Neocon's, Your President Is A Pussy
Bush avoids direct battle with Venezuela's Chavez
http://today.reuters.com/investing/f...07_N05308027:1
Sat Nov 5, 2005 1:44 PM ET
By Steve Holland
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush carefully avoided taking on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez directly at the 34-nation Summit of the Americas, in what aides said was an effort not to elevate the fiery leader.
Chavez, long an irritant to Washington, sought to antagonize the United States by vowing to bury Bush's proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which has been stalled over concerns by some leaders about U.S. agricultural subsidies.
Over two days at this seaside Atlantic resort, Bush spoke of Chavez only once, when asked about him by reporters on Friday. Even then, he spoke only in general terms, saying it was important for all leaders to protect democratic institutions in their countries.
This was in spite of deep grievances that the United States has with Chavez, a fierce Bush critic who has annoyed Washington by strengthening ties with anti-U.S. states like Cuba and promoting his self-described socialist revolution as a counterweight to U.S. regional influence.
Chavez has often accused the United States of plotting his overthrow or assassination.
"This summit is not about Hugo Chavez," Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said before the trip. "We've had some longstanding concerns about the policy for his government. This is not new news."
The U.S. strategy was to avoid a loud public battle with Chavez in Mar del Plata that might build up the Venezuelan and his anti-American argument and take away from the overarching U.S. goal for the summit to promote democracy and economic prosperity.
"This is not a U.S.-Hugo Chavez showdown. That's not the purpose of this summit," said a senior Bush administration official.
"We're just not playing with him. Our message is clear, We're here to promote democratization and economic prosperity through job creation. This is not about taking on one leader who may have an alternative vision," the official said.
While Chavez worked the anti-Bush crowd with a two-hour speech to a stadium filled with 25,000 protesters on Friday, Bush held closed-door meetings with other leaders. When the summit opened, the two leaders were placed in separate rows out of speaking distance.
Bush pledged he would be polite if he ran into Chavez at the summit but there was no sign that the two men met face to face.
But Bush will get out an implied message about Chavez and leaders like him on Sunday in Brasilia in a speech about democracy that aides said would offer two visions for the hemisphere, one of strengthening democracy and common values and the other based on rolling them back.
White House aides, meantime, tried to undermine Chavez' argument at the summit by circulating quotations in support of the free-trade agreement from leaders like Mexican President Vicente Fox.
"When it comes down to it, for Mexico, the FTAA means being able to go forward toward development, in the fight against poverty, in job creation and economic growth," Fox told Argentina's daily newspaper Clarin.
Bush was at the mid-point of a three-nation tour of Latin America that includes the stop in Brazil and a visit to Panama. He returns to Washington on Monday night.
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