Clash of Visions for Latin America: The IV Summit of the Americas and lessons to face the Transpacific Trade Agreement

• In Event: Media, Trade Agreements, and National Security

Abstract

In November 2005 the IV Summit of the Americas was carried on in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, to discuss the commercial integration of the American continent into a trading zone with special privileges for its members. Simultaneously, the III People’s Summit took place in the same city. In the latter, the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, presented a counter proposal to the trade agreement. At the Summit of the Americas, the country representatives were divided into those who favored George W. Bush’s proposal for a continental integration, and those who followed the opposition led by Chávez and the late president of Argentina Néstor Kirchner. This paper explores the degree of influence that the discourses of Chávez, Kirchner, and Bush had on public opinion. A content analysis of the speeches is contrasted with the media coverage and with the influence that the speeches, via the media, had on public opinion. The results suggest that while most people understood and supported Chávez and Kirchner’s opposition to the trade agreement, they did not necessarily support these leaders on other issues. Governments in the region that could be concerned with regressive distributional issues arising from trade agreements and integration can derive valuable lessons to help them construct discourses to inform the public about the impact of this type of multilateral trade agreements.

Author

• Mariana S De Maio, University of Florida