MARK WEISBROT: Obama should embrace Latin America's populist leaders

WASHINGTON -- In the last decade political change has swept across most of Latin America. Much of the region - including the majority of South America - is now run by left-leaning governments. These governments also have become much more independent of the United States. Indeed, in their foreign policy they are more independent than Europe is. Washington's dream of a hemispheric "Free Trade Area of the Americas" is now dead and buried. The attempt to replace this with bilateral "free trade" agreements is losing steam every day. Much of this is a result of the democratic choices of the Latin American electorate. In country after country - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela - voters rejected the "Washington Consensus" economic policies after more than two decades of unprecedented... [read full story]