Chavez And Fox Fight For Influence In Latin America

MEXICO CITY — Latin American news media couldn't get enough of the brawl.

Last week, the president of one big oil-rich country, Venezuela, called the president of another big oil-rich country, Mexico, "a lapdog" of President Bush.

"Don't mess with me, sir, or you will get stung," snarled Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, hurling an additional insult at his former friend, President Vicente Fox of Mexico.

Only three years ago, Chavez toasted Fox with a "Viva Mexico" when Fox, while the United States was silent, rallied to Chavez's defense during a failed coup attempt to oust the polarizing Venezuelan leader.

But now, the feud is on between the two presidents, exploding in public at the Summit of the Americas earlier this month in Argentina. The dispute is about free trade, but also about Chavez's bid to spread his influence in the region.

At the summit, Chavez came out swinging against the U.S.-backed proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, and led street protests bashing Bush.

Fox didn't have to say who he was referring to when he complained in a television interview at the summit that "it was a problem" to go out on the street "to heat things up" and then refuse to talk about things seriously and block "real debate" at the summit.

Chavez responded with his lapdog insult. But he doesn't seem to have gained any real fans in Mexico for responding to Fox with the few choice words.

Fox didn't gain ground either by walking into a trap set by Chavez, said Mexican political analyst Rafael Fernandez de Castro.

Bush is so disliked in Latin America, that "whoever is anti-Bush is well received by many people," Fernandez de Castro said.

For years, Latin America has been instituting free-trade reforms pushed by Washington, but in many countries the attempts have been clumsy and have failed to reduce Latin America's extreme poverty.

Fox's vision, largely ignored by the Bush administration, is that free trade can spread prosperity but would work better combined with the European Union model. The EU's richer countries, he has argued, helped spur development in Europe's poorer countries by setting up funds to build roads, schools and encourage business development.

Fox also joins other presidents, including the left-leaning presidents of Argentina and Brazil, in calling on the United States to reduce massive farm subsidies that make it harder for the Latin countries to compete globally.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, continues to make money by selling oil to the United States, but argues passionately that Latin American nations should push for greater trade among themselves.

He's tried to position Venezuela as a big brother to the fraternity by offering cut-rate oil to Latin American nations with few energy resources.

But there is a political dimension at work, too, in his tirade aimed at the U.S.-friendly Fox. As part of his attempts influence the region, Chavez has tried to cozy up with Mexico's leftist opposition to Fox, the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD.

In September, the leader of Fox's party, the National Action Party, accused Chavez of trying to win the allegiance of the PRD's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has a strong chance of winning the presidency in July 2006.

When Chavez recalled his ambassador to Mexico in a huff last week, a couple of PRD politicians bid farewell to him at the airport.

But Lopez Obrador made sure to distance himself from Chavez, saying, "I would respect Bush. I would respect Chavez."

Fox, who cannot by law run for re-election, has stopped talking for now. But that doesn't mean he won't try to continue to discredit Chavez.

This past week, news stories in Mexican publications detailed an increase in seizures of heroin on flights from Caracas landing at the Mexico City airport. There was also a news report that Mexico's attorney general is investigating the possibility of arms being funneled from Venezuela to an obscure Mexican leftist guerrilla group.

The president of Fox's party, Manuel Espino, unleashed a scorching denunciation of Chavez in the Mexican newspaper, El Universal.

"For some," Espino wrote in an opinion column, "Hugo Chavez is a crazy man who wants to call attention to his being a puppet of Cuba, assuming the role of a cheap imitator of Fidel Castro. For others, it is a source of great shame to have a leader so full of resentment and with an attitude that doesn't do justice to the education and culture of the Venezuelan people."

Round one is over, but the fight isn't.