Back in 2001, many Latin Americans harboured hopes that George W. Bush would give greater priority to a "backyard" that the US had oftentaken for granted. After all, the newly elected president was a former governor of Texas, a state bordering Mexico; he spoke a bit of Spanish; and the "cowboy summit" at the ranch of his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, was the occasion for Mr Bush's first official foreign visit. "Some look south and see problems. Not me; I look south and see opportunities and potential," he had said on the eve of that meeting.

Then came the attacks of September 11 2001, and more pressing concerns. The administration's apparent indifference to Argentina's financial collapse later that year, its bungled response a few months later to the Venezuelan coup and, above all, its invasion of Iraq made Mr Bush a deeply unpopular figure in the region.