Poll: Americans Know Little About Latin America

Zogby Interactive has just released the results of a poll that examines the American public's knowledge of Latin America. The polled 7,362 adults nation wide. The results show that the majority of Americans are ignorant when it comes to our Latin neighbors.

When they were asked if they were familiar with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, just 10% knew he is the President of Brazil. When it comes to knowing that Felipe Calderon is the President of Mexico, they come out a little better at 20%.

They also asked the respondents which Latin American countries were our strongest allies in the region anthey named Mexico as number one and Brazil number two with Costa Rica coming in number three. When asked who were the least friendly, Venezuela and Cuba topped the list with Columbia- which in actuality is one of our biggest supporters in the region- coming in third.

Asked which Latin American countries are the biggest allies to the U.S., Mexico is seen as the top ally, while Brazil is seen as a close second. Costa Rica is seen as the third greatest ally of the U.S. Asked which countries in the region are least friendly to the U.S., Venezuela and Cuba predictably topped the list. But Americans listed Colombia-which has been the U.S.'s closest ally in the past decade-as a distant third.

Columbia gets more foreign aid from the United States, with more than half a billion dollars a year to assist them in fighting drugs and the bands of gorillas. No other country outside of the middle east gets more.

China is making in roads with the countries in Latin America and Americans believe that this is one factor contributing to some of the Latin American countries being hostile to the United States. A majority, 56%, consider it to be a very serious threat.

Breaking that one down demographically, 48% of the liberals think China's involvement is a serious threat as do 76% of the conservatives. Overall, only 10% of the respondents think of China as a danger.