(AFP) – Sep 11, 2008

SAO PAULO (AFP) — The decisions by Bolivia and Venezuela to expel US ambassadors this week are the sharp end anti-US sentiment coming from several leftist governments in Latin America.

Challenges to Washington's influence in the region were also coming from Argentina, angry over a court case linked to alleged campaign cash from Venezuela for President Cristina Kirchner, and Nicaragua, which has aligned with Russia in recognizing rebel zones in the Caucasus country of Georgia.

The shows of defiance by the leftist leaders of those countries were occurring -- by coincidence or not -- just two months before US elections to decide a new president and congress.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave one of the biggest pokes in the United States' eye by hosting two Russian strategic TU-160 bombers at a northern air base.

On Thursday, he said their presence was "a warning" meant to show that "Venezuela is no longer poor and alone."

He reinforced his belligerent message to Washington by ordering US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave within three days as a show of solidarity with Bolivia.

"Go to hell, Yankees!" he thundered in an invective-laced speech against the United States.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close ally of Chavez's, had on Wednesday ordered the US ambassador to his country, Philip Goldberg, expelled for allegedly stoking separatist sentiment among opposition governors seeking autonomy.

That led to a tit-for-tat response Thursday by the United States, which ordered Bolivia's envoy out of the country. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Morales's action "will have serious regional implications."

Morales is currently grappling with violent unrest in rebel states which Thursday left at least four people dead.

Argentina's Kirchner expressed support for Morales in his troubles -- and also added to the rhetoric piling up on the doorstep of the US government.

She accused the United States of political meddling by starting a trial in Miami of a Venezuelan businessman and four others accused of seeking to silence a US-Venezuelan national caught entering Argentina last year with a suitcase full of 800,000 dollars.

The US indictment claiming the funds were from Chavez and destined for Kirchner's successful election campaign last year were motivated by politics, not justice, she said, stressing that Washington had refused to let Argentina try the case.

Officials in Buenos Aires warned that US-Argentine relations "can only be affected by instances with political aims of this sort."

The United States also has been miffed by Nicaragua's recent decision to recognize two rebel Georgian provinces.

A visit by the US secretary of commerce to that Central American country was canceled because "circumstances have changed," US ambassador to Nicaragua Robert Callahan said Tuesday.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »