Especially if things go wrong with Brazil's economy, Mr da Silva may be tempted to appease his own radicals by posing as the rhetorical champion of the Latin American left against Yankee imperialism.

ECONOMIST: Latin America and the United States: End of an affair? | The

So it is not surprising that here at home, the harshest critics of good, old fashion Yankee imperialism came out Wednesday in notes circulating in email in-boxes nationwide that Chavez may have been the victim of a U.S. plot to get rid of him once and for all.

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