Americans care little about events south of the border - unless people cross it. And on the surface, what happens in slums and shanty towns in Mexico or Colombia seems irrelevant to life here.

But President Bush sought to connect the dots in his recent five-country tour in Central and Latin America, highlighting America's supposedly forgotten contributions: democracy, free-market capitalism, and its generosity in extending both to southern neighbors.

Many Latin Americans, however, did not take kindly to such self-praise. Heated protests followed the president everywhere he went. Hosts offered him only lukewarm support. Mayan priests returned to ancient grounds to "purify" them of his presence.

Looming over the whole affair was the spectral figure of a Venezuelan firebrand whose pan-Latin American message increasingly influences the region - and whose name Bush refuses to even utter: Hugo Chavez.

What are the reasons for such intense hostility? And why should it matter to the rest of us? Claims infuriate Latin America

It is not surprising that claims of the United States spreading democracy in Latin America infuriate people in the region. Chile's elected government was overthrown by dictator Augusto Pinochet in a CIA-backed coup in 1973. Nicaraguans were bombed in the 1980s until they rescinded their support of the Sandinistas. Venezuelans suffered a business-led and U.S.-supported coup in 2000 before mass protests brought Chavez back into his elected office.

More fundamentally, many Latin Americans reject the economic vision touted by the president. Starting in 1980, Latin Americans trained by esteemed U.S. economists implemented the neo-liberal measures Bush so feverishly advocates: deregulation, privatization, and unrestricted trade. As a result, tens of millions saw their safety nets evaporate, labor rights crumble, and wages stagnate as inequality skyrocketed. Sound familiar?

Enter Chavez, the most radical of the region's newly-elected leftist presidents.

His nation's oil wealth - previously used by elites to buy plush Miami mansions - is now directed toward massive social programs. Education through college is now free in Venezuela. So is health care. Basic foodstuffs are subsidized. A joint Cuban-Venezuelan program has restored the eyesight of tens of thousands of people. Health clinics have been established in areas where none existed under the old neo-liberal regimes.

After Katrina, Chavez even donated millions of dollars in fuel assistance to low-income residents in New Orleans and in other American cities. Meanwhile, our oil companies kindly informed an irritated, but clueless, Congress that they were making record profits in the aftermath of the disaster because, well, that's just how capitalism works.

Chavez's Venezuela is hardly perfect. But in a country where the poor were once gunned down for protesting privatization and left to die during mudslides, his prioritization of people over profits is a stunning shift.

It is this precisely shift that accounts for the president's image problem in the region.

Beneficiaries of tax cuts that punish working-class Americans, Bush's corporate allies must have sniggered in amusement as the president carted around lettuce in Guatemala feigning concern for working-class non-Americans.

Those south of the border were equally aware of the farce. Their bitter experiences with unfettered capitalism has inured them to such stunts. But north of the border, resistance is less impressive. The United States is the most inequality-afflicted developed country. It rates second-worst among wealthy nations in taking care of its children. Workers have largely lost their unions, benefits, and health care, working more hours to compensate for poor-paying service jobs, even though CEO salaries have risen five-fold in thirty years.

So, while Bush and his conservative cohorts have failed to reintroduce United States' neo-liberalism in Latin America, they are still busy bringing Latin American-like conditions to the United States.

Maybe it's time to start paying better attention to our friends south of the border.

M. Junaid Alam can be reached at 508-236-0439 or malam@thesunchronicle.com.