US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ended a tour of four Latin American countries: Brazil, Colombia, Chile and El Salvador.
Her first port of call was Brazil, where she urged regional governments to reinforce democracy.
In the past two decades, many countries in Latin America have embraced democracy and swallowed Washington's prescription of economic liberalisation.
But deep regional poverty persists, with more than 100 million people living on less than $1 a day.
In a keynote speech in Brasilia, Ms Rice claimed democracy would help ease poverty.
"In time, the blessings of democracy come to everyone who keeps the faith with the principles of democracy," she said.
In the same vein, Ms Rice repeated Washington's desire for a free trade area across the Americas (or "western hemisphere", as she calls it).
She said: "We have an opportunity to unite 800 million people, from southern Chile to northern Canada, into the world's largest free trading community."
Ms Rice said this would "produce an unstoppable force for prosperity".
Critics have argued that an alternative logic may be more appropriate.
Pointing to the case of Ecuador, where a democratically-elected leader was last week ousted - at least partly because prosperity was not perceived to be finding its way down the food chain - they argue that greater prosperity needs to come before greater democracy, not the other way round.
Grievances
Brazil's population of more than 180 million makes it the regional power. Its size and strength were cited by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as factors that should give it a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. He asked for US support.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE TOUR
But Ms Rice, who is known to support reform of the UN, was coy about Brazil's bid, choosing only to acknowledge the country's "growing global presence".
Ms Rice urged President Lula to use his influence to restrain Venezuela's populist left-wing leader, Hugo Chavez.
President Chavez was himself snubbing Washington this week, this time in concert with fellow anti-American heckler, Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The US has a long list of grievances against Mr Chavez, not least his perceived authoritarianism at home, his energy links with China, his arms links with Russia, and his alleged support for guerrillas in neighbouring Colombia.
On Friday, in a rare news conference, President Lula hinted that his worries over rising tensions between the US and Venezuela were eased by what he had heard from Ms Rice.
"I think giant strides are being made toward a harmonious relationship between the United States and Venezuela," he said.
But the US continues to try to garner anti-Chavez support in the region.
It is an uphill battle. Venezuela, a major exporter of oil to the US, has also struck bilateral (and preferential) oil deals with many other countries in the region.
On top of this, many leaders are reluctant to antagonise their left-wing constituencies, many of whom are partial to Mr Chavez.
'Waning influence'
After Brazil, Ms Rice moved on to Colombia, one of the Washington's principle allies in the region, receiving about $600m in US aid per year.
Ms Rice praised President Alvaro Uribe's efforts in tackling guerrilla groups and increasing his control over the country.
She then flew on to Chile, where democracy was again her watchword.
Ms Rice chaired pivotal talks on the divisive issue of who should head the 34-nation Organization of American States (OAS).
A vote, due on Monday, was expected to choose between Chilean and Mexican candidates, with Washington supporting Mexico.
But after the meeting in Chile, an announcement was made that Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez would withdraw his candidacy, thereby opening the way for Chile's socialist Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza to be elected unopposed.
Some commentators have suggested that this will reinforce perceptions in the region that Washington, which has always seen its favoured candidate elected OAS secretary-general, has lost some of its clout in Latin America.
Finally, on Friday, Ms Rice made a brief stop in El Salvador, the only Latin American country still to have troops supporting US-led military efforts in Iraq. Three other Latin American countries - Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic - withdrew their troops from Iraq last year.
Ms Rice was met at the airport by soldiers belonging to the Salvadorean army units currently deployed in Iraq. She was able to thank them personally.
The secretary of state ended her trip by attending a dinner hosted by El Salvador's President, Elias Antonio Saca, who called for Washington's help in tackling Central American crime gangs known as "maras".
El Salvador is so concerned about the expansion of these gangs that it has formally identified them as threats to national security.
A crackdown in El Salvador and Honduras is thought to have contributed to a growing presence of the gang members in the US.
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