White House labels 3 Latin American countries as challenges

Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006

White House labels 3 Latin American countries as `challenges'
BY PABLO BACHELET
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The White House's latest National Security Strategy report
Thursday listed Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia among the world's seven top
trouble spots that could threaten U.S. interests.

The report identifies national security threats and suggests ways the
United States should be prepared to respond. It reasserted the need to
engage in preventive wars to thwart terrorists and hostile governments,
a position initially stated in the previous 2002 report.

Much of new the 49-page report focuses on Iran, international terrorist
groups, the struggle against Islamic radicalism, the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and weapons of mass destruction.

But it also lists the three Latin American nations among seven regional
challenges that require attention, and describes the Western Hemisphere
as "the frontline of defense of American national security."

The mention of Venezuela's fiery President Hugo Chavez, who is one of
Latin America's fiercest critics of President Bush, is blunt.

"In Venezuela, a demagogue awash in oil money is undermining democracy
and seeking to destabilize the region," the report says. Washington
regularly accuses Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, of
using his oil revenues to spread his ideology throughout Latin America,
and of ruling in an increasingly authoritarian way at home.

In another section the report identifies populism - often used to
describe Chavez - as one of its biggest regional threats. "The deceptive
appeal of anti-free market populism must not be allowed to erode
political freedoms and trap the Hemisphere's poorest in cycles of
poverty," the National Security Strategy document warns.

The report also casts Cuba's communist government as a regional menace,
saying that in Havana "an anti-American dictator continues to oppress
his people and seeks to subvert freedom in the region."

It makes only brief mentions of the Latin American countries and
provides no evidence to back up the assertions.

In Colombia, the report says, "a democratic ally is fighting the
persistent assaults of Marxist terrorists and drug-traffickers,"
alluding to conservative President Alvaro Uribe, one of Bush's closest
allies in Latin America, and his battle against rebel groups and cocaine
traffickers. The mention appears unusual because most U.S. government
reports have highlighted Colombia's progress in fighting guerilla
insurgencies.

The 2002 report mostly focused on threats posed by drug traffickers in
the Andes and omitted any mention of Cuba or Venezuela.

The remaining flashpoints are Darfur in Sudan; an armed rebellion in
Uganda; a "festering" border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea; and a
"vicious Maoist insurgency" in Nepal.

The report cites six other regional conflicts that have witnessed
"remarkable progress," including the relations between Pakistan and
India, Israel's withdrawal from Palestinian territories and a peace
accord in Northern Ireland.

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