MEXICO CITY: "No More Bush": it has become a slogan echoed with increasing frequency, on signs and banners carried by protesters and painted on walls throughout Latin America.

Today, with the US presidential election drawing near, this sentiment has come to be shared by the majority of the region's politicians, intellectuals, and even heads of state.

Since Bush took office in 2001, the proportion of people with negative opinions towards the United States in Latin America and the Caribbean has doubled, according to surveys carried out by Latinobarometro, a Chile-based firm.

An international poll conducted by GlobeScan of Toronto, Canada and the University of Maryland in the United States revealed that 42.5 per cent of those surveyed in nine Latin American countries would like to see Democratic Party candidate John Kerry win the November 2 election, while only 19 per cent support the re-election of Bush, a Republican.

This anti-Bush stance was clearly expressed back in March, when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets throughout Latin America, voicing their opposition to the US president and his invasion of Iraq exactly one year earlier.

According to some observers, a win by Kerry would not do much to change Washington's current policies towards the region, and there are even those who believe things could worsen.

However, in the view of Venezuelan historian Samuel Moncada, "Anything is better than Bush." Moncada, who is close to the left-leaning government of President Hugo Chavez, told IPS, "We believe Bush is a fanatic, a fundamentalist. He thinks he talks to God. He is dangerous, and we have felt the sting firsthand."

Relations between Caracas and Washington have been acrimonious since Bush took power. Chavez has accused the US president of plotting to overthrow him, and has gone so far as to publicly call him an "idiot".

While the Venezuelan president has openly expressed his hopes that Kerry will defeat the "Republican extreme right", the other governments of the region have adopted a more diplomatic tone.

Nevertheless, in Argentina, for example, the government's preference for Kerry was clearly demonstrated by the presence of Senator Cristina Fernandez - President Nistor Kirchner's wife - at the Democratic Party Convention that made Kerry's nomination official.

In any event, according to Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, his country is "not a priority for the United States" at this point in time. In Cuba, where the government of Fidel Castro views Bush as a global dictator, the speaker of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcsn, said that his country is not expecting any changes in US policy no matter who wins the election in November.

Kerry "talks about maintaining the embargo and the pressure (on Cuba); it's the same stance, although with slightly less aggressive rhetoric, perhaps," Alarcsn said.

Bush and Kerry both share the view that the four-decade embargo against Cuba should remain in place until Castro falls. As for the impact that the election could have on Latin America, Alarcsn said he doesn't know, "because it's an issue that isn't being discussed at all in the United States."

Washington is too caught up in the "war on terrorism" launched by Bush "to be worrying about countries that have ultimately never interested them," he noted. Esteban Morales, from the University of Havana's Centre for US Studies, said that if Cuba has managed to survive the Bush administration, "which has done everything possible to step up the aggression towards Cuba, then in the future, no matter what happens, this policy is destined to fall into a definitive crisis."

Lawmaker Marma Josi da Conceigao, deputy chair of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies' Foreign Affairs and National Defence Commission, told IPS that she prefers Kerry because the Democratic Party is "more open on human rights and the environment," and this will benefit democracy everywhere, including Latin America.

Moreover, if Bush is re-elected, it will only serve to further reinforce his "warmongering" and "arrogant" attitudes, she said. In any event, "the foreign policy of the Democrats is not very different from that of the Republicans, and when it comes to foreign trade, they're even more protectionist," she added.

In the very limited statements they have made on Latin America-related strategy, both Bush and Kerry have spoken in rather broad terms. Bush promises to continue promoting free trade in and with the region, under a model rejected in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, whose governments believe that Washington fails to take into account the differences in development found in the countries of the hemisphere. Kerry has accused Bush of following a "one-note policy toward Latin America of one-size-fits-all trade agreements."

He himself has promised to evaluate the free trade agreements being negotiated, in order to ensure that they "provide economic benefits, create jobs and include strong protections for labour and the environment." -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.