My view is that the US has involved itself in Latin American politics far too often over the years and needs to just get the hell out of it.  Anyone in America who fears the rise of a Communist foe in Latin America is a fool.  What are they going to do?  Throw red coffee beans at us?  (I suppose they could refuse to sell us oil, but I'm all for that.  More reason to get off the evil, black goop.)  The Cold War's over, and it's time to get over it.  Let Latin America be Latin America, and, if some sort of violent revolution were to take place, as the Bushees seem to imply is happening, whether with guns or with elections...oh well.  I want nothing to do with it.  They can work their own problems out.  Chavez was elected.  So was the woman in Chile, whose name I can't remember, obviously.  Good for them.  I hope they're successful, and that their citizens' lives are made better -- whether Left, Right, Center, Socialist, Free-Marketeer, Moderate, whatever.  As far as I'm concerned, it's none of our damned business, and Latin Americans are smart enough to make their own decisions.

If they want to trade with us, then great.  If not, then great.  We need to leave these people alone.  No more killing farmers because of Americans' inability to put their crack pipes down.  No more intervention when elections don't go our way.  I'm tired of being involved in every country's business.  America needs to move to isolationism in foreign policy.  Our new motto should be, "We Didn't See Nothin', and We're Not Getting Involved."  All soldiers brought home, all bases closed, and so on.  We get ourselves into too much trouble when we get involved in interventionist foreign policy.

As far as the "Washington Consensus" is concerned, I still don't understand why policy-makers would push it, since no developed country in its right mind would take on such policies.  "Gosh, the economy's going into a recession, so let's throw every contractionary policy we can at the problem!"  The "Washington Consensus" was the exact opposite of Keynesianism, and -- shock of all shocks! -- it was a disaster.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.