Left-leaning bloc taking shape

www.sun-sentinel.com By Juan Forero The New York Times Posted January 21 2003

BOGOTA, Colombia · Latin America's four most visible left-leaning heads of state came together for the first time last week at the inauguration of one of them as president of Ecuador.

The new leader, Lucio Gutíerrez, is a former army colonel and coup plotter who has promised to fight the "corrupt oligarchy" in his country.

The others are Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former union leader elected to the Brazilian presidency in October; Fidel Castro of Cuba, the grand old man of the Latin American left; and Venezuela's embattled president, Hugo Chávez.

The four basked in applause at Ecuador's cavernous Congress on Jan. 15 and held meetings to discuss the future of a troubled region.

To some in Washington, particularly conservatives on Capitol Hill, the convergence of leftist leaders, all of whom, at some point, have used antagonistic words in criticizing U.S. policy, has raised concerns about a new pan-Latin American movement with socialist overtones.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, warned late last year that Brazil's new president might join Chávez and Castro in a new "axis of evil." Hyde also characterized da Silva as a dangerous "pro-Castro radical who for electoral purposes had posed as a moderate."

It is true that all four leaders share similarities: opposition to the unfettered market reforms that have failed so far to bring prosperity to Latin America, concern about the burdensome foreign debts that stagger many nations in the region and wariness about the United States meddling in their affairs.

Invigorated by da Silva's victory in Brazil, the first election of a left-wing president in the largest Latin American country, the four leaders also see an opportunity to shape events in the region, rather than leave it to the United States to set the agenda.

Brazil already has exerted its influence, with da Silva becoming the driving force behind a "group of friendly nations," including the United States, that is offering to help Venezuela negotiate an end to a 7-week-old national strike aimed at forcing Chávez from power. Chávez has welcomed the initiative, flying on Friday to meet in Brazil with da Silva to discuss ways to resolve the crisis.

"There's no question that these four nations are going to form an axis of populism, or an axis of popular rhetoric," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington-based policy analysis group.

Birns and other analysts who track political trends in Latin America said that while the four leaders might, on the surface, show a united front, they were four very different men who would pursue different agendas with markedly different approaches.

Da Silva, 57, who grew up in poverty, became a factory worker and helped found the Workers Party, won a loyal following as a firebrand who railed against everything from international lending policies to the incompetence and corruption of Brazil's elite class.

After losing three presidential elections, he moderated his tone, promising that Brazil would pay its foreign debt while still trying to enact social policies to alleviate poverty and hunger.

Gutíerrez, 45, a former colonel and son of a riverboat captain, shares many of da Silva's qualities, say international analysts who have met him.

Though his background is dissimilar -- he helped lead a coup that toppled President Jamil Mahuad three years ago -- he is seen as a pragmatist who already has shifted on earlier positions such as scrapping the country's dollar currency and not paying the foreign debt.

Chávez, 48, and Castro, 76 leader of the hemisphere's only communist country for 44 years, have taken more defiant stances.