I'm not sure.  Our politicians don't seem to take Latin America very seriously.  Chavez serves as a nice bogeyman for Faux News, but, beyond that, and beyond the griping about Mexicans and the border, there's just not much going on.  Latin America seems to serve more as a play thing for them than anything else.

And:

But considering that the US can't even win a war against a non-country like Afghanistan, or a third-rate power like Iraq, taking on Latin America would still be ambitious.

Taking on China would be suicidal.

No, we're great at fighting wars.  We can blow shit up in real style.  It's the aftermath stuff that we're not so much for.

But, yeah, I do agree that war with Latin America would still be more likely than war with China.  That's simply not happening.  Or so I think, but with two of our three presidential candidates -- I assume McCain is for it, even though he's never said one way or the other to my knowledge -- being in favor of nuking Iran, I should probably hold my tongue here.

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