US President George W. Bush wrapped up a five-nation Latin
America tour Wednesday that has increased pressure on him to make
changes to US immigration policy.
In a region where he suffers from a lack of popularity and there
is a sense of US neglect, Bush tried hard to soften his image.
He mingled with farmers in Guatemala, danced with Brazilian
teenagers in Sao Paulo and toured the Mayan ruins of Mexico, the
type of sightseeing he has largely steered clear of in previous
foreign travel.
But he was dogged along the way by mocking "Gringo go home"
rhetoric from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, while street
protests at some of his stops showed the depth of the region's
frustration with him.
In Mexico City, hundreds of demonstrators carrying signs bearing
slogans like "Bush, Assassin, we don't want you as a neighbor"
protested Bush's visit on Tuesday by throwing rocks at heavily
armored riot police guarding the US Embassy.
Police tossed rocks back from behind a security fence, then
charged at the rioters, dispersing them with tear gas. A handful of
police were injured and three protesters were arrested, a police
spokesman said.
Leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia all pressed Bush to
work to relax US immigration policy and find a way to achieve a
legal work status for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the
United States.
It was a topic in talks again Wednesday between Bush and Mexican
President Felipe Calderon, who delivered a blunt message on
Tuesday, complaining directly about US plans to build a fence along
part of the porous US-Mexican border.
As long as the United States is rich in capital and Mexico rich
in labor, "migration might not be stopped, and certainly not by
decree," said Calderon.
Calderon took over in December from Vicente Fox, who failed to
get an immigration deal with Bush during his term.
Bush is pledging to push the Democratic-led US Congress to
complete action on immigration this year with significant steps
taken by August, before the campaign for the 2008 race to succeed
him completely takes over.
Back home, the problems continued to pile up.
The revelation of close White House involvement in the firing of
eight federal prosecutors sent White House aides into full damage
control mode on Tuesday.
This came on top of revelations of shoddy outpatient care at
Walter Reed Medical Center, an affair that has resulted in
top-level Army resignations; the conviction on perjury and
obstruction charges of Vice-President Dick Cheney's former chief of
staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and the FBI's acknowledgment that
it broke the law to ferret out personal information about
Americans.
Fred Greenstein, professor emeritus of politics at Princeton
University, offered one explanation for why Bush was finding
trouble at every turn: "When you're down, you're a target. It's the
blood-in-the-water phenomena. The story becomes the shortcomings of
the administration. I know that has happened in other presidencies.
Things that might have been passed off suddenly become very
important."
(China Daily via agencies March 15, 2007)
