Maybe Washington policy looks worse the farther you are from the U.S. That would be one conclusion from the results of surveys by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. The surveys were conducted in Venezuela (June 24 to July 6, 2010), the Dominican Republic (April 29 to May 5) and Argentina (May 26 to June 17). Two results stand out. The first is that conventional wisdom that President Hugo Chávez’ regular diatribes against the U.S. government are tapping a wellspring of anti-Americanism is not true. A little less than half of the Venezuelans surveyed approved of the U.S.’s policies toward the region and toward their country, and 63 percent disapprove of President Chávez’ obstreperousness with the gringos. The second is that support for U.S. policies toward the region drops off the farther you get from the U.S., with just under 60 percent of Dominicans in favor of U.S. policy in the region, dropping down to 19 percent in Argentina. Who said distance makes the heart grow fonder?
