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"Latin America"
Posted by Alexander (Guest) - Sunday, October 26 2003, 22:49:07 (EST)
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Posted on Sun, Oct. 26, 2003

OPINION LEADERS
Professionals strong on Lula and Lagos
In a survey of ''elites'' in six Latin American countries, the presidents of Brazil and Chile won high marks for achievement.
BY GREGG FIELDS
gfields@herald.com




HIGH REGARD: Presidents Ricardo Lagos of Chile, left, and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina have the support of the region's urban middle- and upper class. DANIEL GARCIA/AFP


A sweeping survey of professional-class citizens across Latin America found great disregard for President Bush and Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, with solid support for the leadership of Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chile's Ricardo Lagos.

The survey also found ambivalent regard for democracy overall and widespread belief that free trade's benefits accrue much more to the United States than to Latin America.

The survey was conducted for the University of Miami School of Business by Zogby International.

For its survey, Zogby interviewed 537 ''elites,'' defined as upper-middle-income or higher-income people living in an urban area. Participants are members of one of four groups: government, media, academia and business. The countries surveyed included Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Mexico and Peru.

The survey sought information in four broad areas: how the respondents regarded their own leaders, their feelings toward leaders elsewhere in Latin America, their views on the state of the economy in their own countries, and how they felt about President Bush and U.S. relations.

LULA ADMIRED

Some of the strongest across-the-board approval ratings were for Lula of Brazil -- ranging from 63 percent by Argentines to 78 percent by Mexicans. For Brazilians, it was 65 percent.

Those numbers dovetail with the rising international profile of Lula, who has won supporters at home by chiding the rich world to spend more on battling hunger and poverty in developing nations. Brazil spearheaded the formation of the Group of 21, developing countries who were at loggerheads with industrialized countries over agricultural subsidies. The movement resulted in a walkout by developing nations at a World Trade Organization meeting in Cancún last month.

Yet, while leftists who champion the poor often make foreign investors nervous, Lula has managed to keep capital from fleeing his country.

The strongest disapproval ratings in the survey, by far, were for Castro and Chávez. For the region as a whole, Castro had a disapproval rating of 68 percent, but Chávez's was actually higher, at 75 percent. Chávez's highest disapproval rating actually came from Venezuelans, where 85 percent of the respondents gave him a thumbs-down.

Chávez, who had previously led an army coup, was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He has since suffered a number of economic and political setbacks, including a crippling strike in the vital oil industry and an uprising that briefly toppled him from power in 2002. He is widely loathed by the business class, the very group this survey focused on.

The survey also found that satisfaction with democratic government varied widely by location.

Only in Brazil and Chile did solid majorities say they were satisfied with how democracy works in their country. But in Venezuela a huge majority of 84 percent expressed dissatisfaction with democracy, as did 54 percent of Mexicans.

Overall, 45 percent of the respondents from the six countries expressed dissatisfaction with democracy, while 48 percent said they were satisfied with how it works in their country.

In terms of the economic situation, solid majorities felt that conditions had improved in Argentina, Chile and Colombia over the last 12 months. Nearly half -- 49 percent -- of Mexicans felt things had gotten worse, as did a whopping 84 percent of Venezuelans.

In addition, 60 percent of Venezuelans felt things would worsen over the next six months, the only country where a majority of respondents felt that way.

On a variety of economic issues, such as achieving economic growth and improving economic equality, respondents from Argentina and Brazil generally gave their leaders high marks.

But Vicente Fox of Mexico and Chávez of Venezuela got blistering reviews. Fox had a bad rating on growth, equality and achieving full employment from more than 70 percent of Mexican respondents. For Chávez, more than 80 percent gave him a bad rating.

AMBIVALENCE ON TRADE

And free trade got mixed reviews as well. In the region as a whole, 51 percent said that free trade with the United States benefits North America the most, while only 8 percent said it favored Latin America. Another 39 percent said both sides did equally well.

The most negative feelings toward free trade were from Mexicans and Brazilians. The survey found that 76 percent of Mexican respondents felt that free trade favored the United States the most, while 73 percent of Brazilians felt that way.

U.S. President George W. Bush fared even worse in the opinions of the respondents. When asked the question, ''How would you rate President George W. Bush's job performance concerning Latin America?'' only 12 percent of the respondents gave him a positive rating, with 87 percent giving him a negative rating.

Bush's standing was lowest in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, each of which gave him a negative rating exceeding 90 percent.



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