Bush Touts Trade, but US Bid to Empower OAS Stalls

President Bush, worried about the fragility of democracies close to home, warned the Organization of American States on Monday of menaces lurking over Latin America and the Caribbean and lauded the benefits of free trade.

But a US campaign to strengthen the OAS and help it fortify Latin American democracies – and prevent some from collapsing – appeared headed for a setback during the hemispheric group's General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale.

The Bush administration wants to create an early-warning mechanism that would help the OAS intervene when a democracy is threatened. However, key nations are rejecting the initiative in a polarizing floor battle at the three-day assembly.

''Madam Secretary, democracy cannot be imposed,'' Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, official host of the annual conference, which is scheduled to end today.

As delegates from the 34 OAS member nations gave speeches and interviews, Bolivia's capital of La Paz was largely paralyzed by tens of thousands of protesters and a new political crisis. In 2003, Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was forced to resign amid violent street protests.

Shifting his drive for democracy in the Middle East and Southwest Asia to Latin America and the Caribbean, Bush said democracy in this hemisphere cannot be taken for granted and that free trade would elevate living standards in the region and help stabilize it.

''An Americas linked by trade is less likely to be divided by resentment and false ideologies,'' Bush said during a 13-minute speech.

More than 2,100 diplomats and others are in South Florida for the OAS conference, officially devoted to expanding democracy in a region where 14 elected governments have been toppled since 1989.

Security remained tight and protesters remained scarce. About 100 demonstrators gathered near the meeting site, the Broward County Convention Center, and they were penned inside a designated area largely out of the delegates' view.

''An Americas where all our people live in prosperity will be more peaceful,'' Bush said. "And an Americas whose countries have reduced the barriers to trade among ourselves will be a more competitive region in a global economy.''

OTHER VIEWS

But the difficulty of the task – and a rift that seemed to be widening between the United States and some Latin American nations – came into sharp relief as representatives of those counties rose to speak.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodríguez said democracy can thrive in many forms as long as those forms honor universal principles such as freedom of speech and respect for human rights.

His nation and the United States increasingly are at odds, with Venezuela seeing itself as the target of US attempts to strengthen OAS oversight of member nations that stray from democratic ideals.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, an elected leftist, is accused of moving toward authoritarian rule. And on Monday, Rodríguez appeared to hint that Venezuela's vision of democracy is indeed not the same as some others'.

''In Venezuela, we have a democracy that is different from the democracy of the United States,'' he said.

"But only one model? No. Definitely not.''

Bush said the Americas face dueling visions, one founded on representative governments and free markets, and another that "seeks to roll back the Democratic progress of the past two decades by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people.''

The comment was seen as a reference to Chávez.

In his speech, Bush also urged the US Congress to quickly approve a free-trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, known as CAFTA-DR, a major step toward his goal of a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.

While much of the region embraced free-market principles in the 1990s, polls show that many Latin Americans are frustrated by the slow pace of economic improvement, with popular revolts becoming common.

In April, street protests forced Ecuador's Congress to vote President Lucio Gutiérrez, also a close ally of Washington, out of office. The OAS largely stood on the sidelines.

Critics of Bush assert that he has devoted too little attention to the region as he concentrates on the war on terrorism and Iraq.

At the same time, some Latin American and Caribbean leaders resent what they view as heavy-handed behavior by the United States. They point to the latest initiative from Washington, built around a new OAS committee that would monitor democracy in member nations.

''The problem is that they want to impose a position on other countries,'' Rodríguez said.

Said Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell: "People don't want to be put in a situation where it appears that a country or particular countries are being targeted for special treatment and isolation in an arbitrary fashion.''

POSSIBLE COMPROMISE

Given the lack of support for the US initiative, diplomats said Washington and its supporters likely would have to settle for a watered-down compromise.

Many members seem to favor a proposal presented by Chile that postpones hard decisions. That draft resolution asks new OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and others to suggest improvements.

The Chilean initiative, which is supported by 11 countries, stipulates that the OAS should not act unless it is invited to do so by a country in crisis, a key demand of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and other nations.

Venezuela argues that the region's real problem is poverty.

''The quality of life is simply nonexistent and as a result the quality of democracy is simply precarious and its strength uncertain,'' he said. "Democracy and poverty are simply incompatible.''