Alex wrote:

What? I thought we'd extended NAFTA to South America, and joined GATT
and the WTO... We've been buying Mexican and Venezuelan oil for
decades, etc, etc, etc...


Ok, I was talking about southamerican countries where the US installed
dictatorships. Trade was not the motivation and the current lack of
trade agreements in those countries proves it.


In 2002 the U.S. exported commodities worth some $29
billions to South America and imported $48 billions worth.
See:
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/o...ea/rsamer.html

If trade is not the motivation to install dictatorships
what was it?