But some Latin American countries still maintain good bilateral relations with the United States. On February 27, the United States and Colombia announced that the two countries reached an agreement on free trade after two years of negotiations. Also, on April 12, the United States and Peru signed the free trade agreement that was reached between the two countries in December last year.

In any case, Latin America is the backyard of the United States. As Latin America has to depend on the United States economically, a move to eliminate U.S. influence from the region will not appear. In other words, relations between Latin American countries and the United States have been in a state of coexistence between cooperation and confrontation, and that will persist in the future. But cooperation will still dominate.

Relations within the region

In recent years, relations between some Latin American countries have not been very good. For example, on April 22, Venezuela said it would formally withdraw from the Andean Community of Nations. International media termed the event the gravest crisis since the trade bloc was created in 1969, and at the same time it has had a huge negative effect on the Latin American integration process.

On April 28, Chavez attacked Alan Garcia, Peru's former president who was running in the second round of presidential elections, in barbed words in one of his speeches to the nation, which has aggravated tensions between Venezuela and Peru. Peru announced the next day that it would recall its ambassador to Venezuela.

After Morales announced that Bolivia would seize control of the oil and natural gas industry on May 1, relations with Brazil and Argentina, two countries that have been severely affected by the decision, became complicated. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Brazilian Government would not take any retaliatory measures against Bolivia, but he also stressed that Bolivia should not have sovereignty over Brazil, and maintaining Bolivia's rights should not damage Brazil's interests.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of Latin American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences