Approval of the United States among Latin Americans has dropped in the two years since the last Summit of the Americas when Barack Obama was still in power, a Pew Research Center study has found.
People from seven Latin American countries were surveyed for the study. A median of 47 percent said they have a favourable view of the US.
Under former president Barack Obama “across the same seven countries, a median of 66 percent had a favorable view of the US. 19 points higher than in last year’s (2017) survey”, Pew reported, drawing comparisons between the US under Donald Trump in 2017 and under Obama in 2015.
Approval in the current survey was highest in the summit’s host country, Peru (51 percent), as well as in Colombia (51 percent) and Brazil (50 percent), Pew reported.
Mexicans had the poorest perception of the US. Just just 30 percent said they have a favourable view.
“As is the case in much of the world, relatively few people in Latin America express confidence in Trump’s leadership on the global stage”, Pew noted, citing survey results that showed a median of 77 percent of people in Latin American said “they have no confidence in the US president to do the right thing regarding world affairs”. In the previous survey, this figure sat at 42 percent.
Trump received his lowest ratings on this question in Mexico, where 93 percent said they have no confidence in the US.
Argentines took the middle ground among their Latin American neighbours. Just 13 percent expressed confidence in President Trump. Also surveyed were Venezuelans, who reported the highest approval of Trump among Latin Americans at 20 percent.
THE WALL
His proposed wall on the US-Mexico border was also particularly unpopular in Mexico, where 94 percent said they disapproved of the project, the research centre reported.
Large majorities of people in Latin America also had negative views of Trump’s personal characteristics, describing him as arrogant (a median of 82 percent), intolerant (77 percent) and dangerous (66 percent). However, about three-quarters (77 percent) also described the president as a strong leader.
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that reports on issues, attitudes and trends relating to America and the world.
-TIMES
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