The Workers' Party (PT) government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again displayed its duplicity and ideological compromise with leftist and dictatorial regimes. It also made clear its unstated but real desire to work for a politico-social destabilization of Latin America, which it sees as a means to counter American influence in the region - more specifically the influence of President Bush's conservative administration - and to foster the rise of socialist regimes.***