Lawmakers from Venezuela's ruling party this week unveiled further "evidence" that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is covertly training Venezuelans in terrorist tactics that could lead to the assassination of President Hugo Chavez. Never mind that the alleged conspirator is, in fact, Wackenhut Corp., a firm that trains security guards for the likes of department stores and fast-food restaurants.

Meanwhile in Ecuador, lawmakers called upon their government to explain a September agreement with the U.S. military to build three new facilities in the country. The legislators said they believe the facilities would be used to further involve Ecuador in armed conflict in neighboring Colombia. The U.S. Southern Command says the facilities will be no more than warehouses for natural-disaster-relief supplies.

Throughout the hemisphere, new leaders are promulgating a kind of rhetoric about U.S. imperialistic ambitions reminiscent of the Cold War conspiracy theories of a generation ago when the U.S. was involved in toppling governments and supporting undemocratic regimes

Such theories are not new. The problem this time around is that Washington is doing little to improve its image in the region and to counter such notions and the fears they engender. That leaves a vacuum too easily filled by the free flow of information -- and disinformation -- fueling anti-American sentiment in even the most distant corners of the continent.

Most in Washington dismiss such theories as hogwash that gives more credit than is due to a U.S. government absorbed in a new and formidable anti-terrorism war that has pushed Latin America backstage.

But ridiculing this kind of theorizing as foolish or anachronistic ignores the fact that it is finding fertile ground among traditionally disenfranchised groups in the region whose destabilizing power is growing and whose leaders are gaining prominence. For groups as diverse as the piqueteros in Argentina, cocaleros in Bolivia, landless workers in Brazil, the Pachakutik indigenous movement in Ecuador and the Bolivarian Circles in Venezuela, there is one commonality: the belief that the U.S. role in the region is pernicious.

During the Cold War, Washington countered negative propaganda abroad with well-funded public diplomacy efforts that included cultural and academic exchanges and international radio and television programming. Such efforts were meant to contain Soviet expansion and promote democracy and U.S. values.

When the Cold War ended so did funding for initiatives like the AFL-CIO's program to help strengthen labor movements in the region and the Central American Peace Scholarship program that brought thousands of economically disadvantage students to junior colleges in the United States, recalled Stephen Johnson of the Heritage Foundation.

That was then. Now, Washington is engrossed in efforts to contain terrorism. And in that endeavor it seems more inclined to neglect the softer side of diplomacy in favor of a bullying and arm-twisting approach that only aggravates suspicions among Latin Americans. Add to that the Bush administration's pre-emptive strike policy, plus the history of U.S. intervention in the region, and the distrust, resentment and fear that many in Latin America feel toward the United States comes as no surprise.

Earlier this month a congressionally funded panel concluded that U.S. public diplomacy -- official efforts to communicate U.S. values, policies and intentions -- was "absurdly and dangerously underfunded." The panel, which focused on the Arab and Muslim world's hostility toward the United States, found that funding for all public diplomacy programs amounted to $600 million last year -- much less than 1 percent of the U.S. defense budget, without counting the cost of the war in Iraq.

This too is not a new development. Funding for such programs has been declining for more than a decade. The Voice of America's Spanish-language programming has been cut, and the Portuguese-language service to Brazil has been eliminated. Exchanges have been reduced by at least one half, and organizations like the University of Miami's North-South Center, officially funded for 20 years to run educational programs in the Americas, may close its doors for good by the end of the year.

While priorities and funding have shifted since the Cold War, the need for programs and initiatives that seek to promote better understanding across the region has not diminished. As a new generation of nontraditional Latin American leaders arises, leaders who have not experienced cultural and academic exchanges and who have been reared on but one message from Washington -- that growth and prosperity will come once the hemisphere integrates into a Free Trade Area of the Americas -- so arise old fears, resentments and divisions.