Article by Larry B. Pascal1
The Bush Administration may be facing a daunting number of foreign policy challenges around the globe. However, from this vantage point, the recent presidential election in Mexico in which right-of center PAN candidate Felipe Calderón narrowly defeated the left-of-center and populist opponent Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO by his initials) can only be viewed as a beacon of hope in the dim constellation of largely leftist, anti-U.S. governments rising to the south. This is a positive development for Latin America, where there have been recent dramatic swings to the extreme left in the region (notably Venezuela and Bolivia).
More leaders from Latin America now hold anti-US foreign policy views and regularly assail the market friendly neo-liberal policies of the 1980s and 1990s. Although these free market reforms have not solved all of Latin America’s economic problems (and in particular the marked differences between the rich and poor,
