MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gallup poll shows strong Latinamerican support for Obama: 61%

President Barack Obama

A recent Gallup poll surveying Latinamerican perceptions of Barack Obama found that the US President’s strongest support comes from Chile, where 72% of those polled have a favourable image of him.

The poll of 17 Latinamerican countries also found strong support for Obama in Colombia (68%) and Uruguay (64%).

Countries giving Obama his lowest marks were Venezuela (with only 48% support), Bolivia (46%) and Paraguay (40%). In Nicaragua Obama rated 42%, three percentage points less that former President Bush’s 45%.

The same Gallup poll showed that regional support for the US increased from 39% in 2008 to 51% this year, with 61% of Latinamericans supporting Obama and 14% opposing him.

Chile’s overall support of for the US administration was placed at 59%, 30 percentage points increase over public support given the administration of former US President George W. Bush.

The Gallup poll also found that 42% of Latinamericans believe that US/Latinamerica relations will improve with the new administration, 28% think relations will stay the same and 6% believe they will get worse.

By Gida Homad-Hamam - Santiago Times