Bush faces widespread opposition in Latin America

Story Highlights

• Bush's challenge, experts say, is the widespread rejection of Iraq war
• Police and protesters clashed in Sao Paulo before Bush arrived
• Some say Bush's trip is an anti-Hugo Chavez offensive
• Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has called Bush "the devil"

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Experts in Latin American affairs are saying they aren't surprised at the negative reaction President Bush is receiving as he begins a seven-day tour through the region to push for an ethanol alliance with Brazil.

"His real challenge, however, is that there is an enormous rejection of U.S. foreign policy in the world and America," said Arturo Valenzuela, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University.

"In other words, there is very little affinity for the president's policies in Iraq and the ways in which he has conducted international relations over these years." (Watch Bush play catch-up with Latin America while most U.S. focus has been on Iraq )

On Thursday, police and protesters clashed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, hours before Bush arrived Thursday evening, The Associated Press reported. No protesters were visible on Bush's route to the city from the airport, but earlier about 6,000 people gathered for a largely peaceful march against Bush, the AP said. (Read full story)

Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, sending hundreds fleeing and ducking into businesses to avoid the gas, the AP said. Several protesters said police beat them, according to the news agency.

Despite the protests, the United States still wields enormous influence in Latin America, a potential plus for Bush.

"He's still the president of the United States," said Dan Restrepo of the Center for American Progress. "He may be the lame-duck president of the United States, but the U.S. is the most important trading partner for virtually every country in the Americas."

With the U.S. focused on Iraq, that strong trading presence is being challenged quietly by China and Russia, and more vocally by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has referred to his U.S. counterpart as "the devil," and is using his country's oil revenues to spread cash and anti-American rhetoric throughout the region.

Though some observers see Bush's trip as an anti-Chavez offensive, others see isolating Chavez as a byproduct of a U.S. plan to reduce the region's dependence on oil and ease its widespread poverty.

"I think, really, the focus is -- let's build up with those in Latin America that see a vision of economic growth, of economic integration, of economic stability, of free-and-fair elections," said David Lewis, an economist for Manchester Trading who specializes in Latin American affairs. "Let's build up with those and then we just let the chips fall where they may."

If such a plan proves successful, it could contain Chavez and other perceived threats to U.S. interests, he said.

Whatever happens during his trip, Bush's real challenge will come afterward, when he will need to deliver on his promise to support changes in immigration policy and persuade the Democratic-controlled Congress to renew his authority to negotiate free-trade agreements.

That will be a difficult task to accomplish when U.S. legislators and much of the country are focused not on their neighbors to the south, but on the war in Iraq.

CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez contributed to this report