Latin America News Update

I´m not sure how much information everyone back in the states is getting about Latin American news. Because Bush is currently here in the southern part of the western hemisphere, I am going to give a little "coyuntura" as we call news updates here. Not only is Bush touring the region but one of his favorite people, Hugo Chavez is as well.
First Bush:
When he spend only 6 hours in Colombia, there were over 20,000 military and police there to protect him. Usually Bogota shuts down their roads on Sundays for people to walk around and roller blade. Not this past Sunday. There was no fun in the the streets for Bogoteños. In Guatemala there were hge protests on Saturday against the arrival of Bush in the region. The theme of the protests was to compare Bush to Hitler. In fact, they spelled his name with a swastika in place of the "s". The seemingly ridiculous amounts of security protecting Bush are not so ridiculous if he wants to maintain his count of zero assassination attempts. My brothers are surely not fans of Bush and have expressed the fact that they would in no way be sad if Bush happened to disappear. They don´t however, have anti-American sentiments and my general feeling here is that people differentiate between the Bush government and the USAmericans as individuals with seperate sentaments and political views.
Second Chavez:
Two nights ago Chavez came to Leon (a city north of Managua) and gave a very long speech that I watched live with my host mom, Lucy. He was wearing a lot of red. He tended to repeat himself with his favorite phrase being " Viva la revolucion Sandinista" (the Sandinistas are back in power with Daniel Ortega but calling them true Sandinistas is open for debate...but that is a whole other topic). He also blamed all of the poverty and horrible things happening in the region and world on Capitalism. A Socialist world is the type of world that we need. Apparently, also, Daniel Ortega gave Chavez original manuscripts from one of Ruben Dario´s writings and has not given them back. (Ruben Dario is a national icon. He was a famous author by the age of 12 and became an embassador for Nicaragua and anyone in their right mind would give back the manuscripts). Giving him those manuscripts was basically like giving the man part of the Nicaraguan national treasure. I asked Lucy what she thought of Chavez as she is a strong Sandinista supporter. Her answer was first that he is a bit crazy. Second, he continually criticizes Bush for his "God" complex but she said that he is acting the exact same way, if not more so. She also said that while it is very nice that Chavez is offering economic support to Nicaragua, he needs to look in his own backyard at the intense poverty in Venezuela. (This is only one Nicaraguan point of view as there are many Chavez supporters here)

This is only a little bit of what is going on in Latin America right now. A couple of weeks ago in Guatemala there was an assassination of 4 El Salvadorian diplomats on their way to a conference for the countries of Central America. The assassins were found (men affiliated with drug gangs) and incarcerated and then assassinated in jail by supporters of the diplomats who took over the prison where the gang members were.

To end on a lighter note, Nicaragua i s one of the safest of the Central American countries--random acts of violence are very very rare. Also, Miss Nicaragua competition is finally occurring on Saturday after weeks of TV interviews with the young women on Canal 2 (the national news station). There is also a Mister Nicaragua but it does not get quite as much hype. Also, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes...I am juggling two languages here....!