A dialogue of the deaf - Obama and McCain's rhetoric on Latin America

Few governments in the world are waiting with greater expectation for the new US president than those of Latin America. No continent has experienced such benign neglect during the past eight years of Republican rule, a period in which every country in the region, bar Peru and Colombia, has taken the opportunity to elect governments of a leftist persuasion that the US would not have permitted during most of the 20th century.

Conveniently forgetting that unfortunate record of support for military dictatorships, the US is now committed to sustaining democracies wherever they may appear, foregoing any attempt to secure regime change with the assistance of friendly conservative generals.

Yet the new president will find himself faced with a continent that relishes its newly-acquired freedom, and enjoys its chance to poke fun at Uncle Sam.