MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico and Venezuela spend millions lobbying in the US

Venezuela prefers to target US public opinion

Mexico is the Latinamerican country which most resources invests in influencing US policies, while the Venezuelan government deploys the most public relations activities to promote a positive image, according to data from the US Justice Department.

The administration of Mexican president Felipe Calderón disbursed 2.7 million US dollars for lobbying activities in 2007 and 2008, point out Sunlight Foundation and Propublica, non government organizations which searched Justice Department documents.

The sum includes 1.3 million US dollars for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Public Strategies from Washington, to help contact US lawmakers in reference to the crossing of Mexican trucks into the US, in the framework of the NAFTA agreement. The purpose was to allow Mexican trucks deliver directly in the US and vice versa.

As with the Mexican case other Latinamerican countries have also contracted public relations companies to advise and prepare meetings with US Congress members to discuss specific issues of their interest.

Peru and Ecuador lobbied strongly for the renewal of the free trade agreement with the Andean countries.

In the case of Venezuela the approach was to influence US public opinion, since most funds were invested in contacting journalists, academics and activists.

“Each country has different relations and needs. This is reflected in the lobbing undertaken”, said Michael Shifter, who heads the Inter-American Dialogue.

“Venezuela has a conflicting relation with the US, but trade and oil relations have been most fluid”, he added.

The Venezuelan Government Information Office was responsible for one third (613) of the region’s contacts (1.850) with US political and elected officials. The bill amounted to 1.17 million US dollars.

However an analysis of the Justice Department data shows Latinamerica was only responsible for 8.4% of the total 22.000 contacts and lobbing activities in the US by countries all over the globe.

This means the region spent 8 million US dollars out of a total 87 million that were disbursed by governments, government agencies and commerce chambers from the rest of the world. Arab Emirates only, spent 10 million US dollars.

The list of countries which most invested to lobby and to have contacts is followed by the United Kingdom, 6 million; Japan, 4.2 million; Turkey, 4.1 million, according to data obtained by Propublica and Sunlight Foundation.

Some of the world’s poorest countries such as Ethiopia spent, 2.3 million US dollars.