ARLINGTON, Va. -- ANTI-AMERICAN populism is in vogue again in Latin America. And we may have ourselves to blame.

In Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, politicians rail against the United States as an arrogant, greedy, uncaring bully. Crowds cheer; civil libertarians cringe.

What has the United States done to provoke this? The answer is: It’s not so much what we’ve done, but what we haven’t done. We haven’t paid serious attention to Latin America. This has created a political vacuum that such anti-U.S. politicians as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are happy to fill.

The new, 110th Congress can help change this. By approving the free-trade agreements with Peru and Colombia that the Bush administration signed last April and November, respectively, Congress can shore up America’s sagging stature in the Western Hemisphere. If Congress doesn’t act swiftly and wisely, however, our southern neighbors may legitimately conclude that the United States thinks only of itself.

When George W. Bush assumed the presidency, most observers expected him to put greater emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. But these expectations, fueled by the close ties he built with Mexico as Texas governor, were dealt a staggering blow by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Virtually overnight, Latin America was put on the back burner, while Afghanistan, Iraq and Islamic terrorism became the focus of U.S. foreign policy.

In the economic sphere, the story is similar: Latin America has become an afterthought.

Globalization in general and outsourcing in particular are perceived as the big challenges (and threats) facing America, so China and India have taken the spotlight. This ignores that Latin America’s economies taken together produce roughly twice as much as China, with only half of China’s population — and that Latin America buys far more U.S. exports than China. Between 1992 and 2003, for instance, total U.S. merchandise trade with Latin America increased 154 percent, compared to 88 percent for all of Asia.

While approval of the pending agreements would help boost our sagging image, there are other compelling reasons for Congress to act as well.

Congress needs to think of free trade and the proposed free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru as partnership contracts built on mutual respect and the rule of law. Creating such a framework would promote mutually beneficial economic cooperation and trade; demonstrate America’s interest in our neighbors’ well-being; advance democratic institutions and the rule of law; and help undermine corruption and the rise of more anti-American political figures.

We can see all of the above in Mexico, one of our two North American Free Trade Agreement partners and the Latin American country that trades the most with the United States (more than $120 billion in 2005).

Mexico’s occasionally troubled history was marred, until recently, by single-party rule, rampant corruption and episodic periods of anti-Americanism. The 1992 NAFTA agreement helped change this. By all reasonable measures, Mexico today is more democratic and more transparent in its financial dealings than it was prior to NAFTA.

Every federal government ministry in Mexico now has an accountability officer charged with enforcing ethical standards, as well as designing and implementing procedures to improve the efficiency and accountability of the agency, the Academy of Humanistic Research (Academia de Investigacion Humanistica A.C.), a nonpartisan Mexican “civil association,” or think tank, reports.

In addition, while we have not seen an end to anti-Americanism in Mexico, the country’s voters last year rejected the anti-American candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his bid for the presidency.

Such positive changes also are evident in Chile, which signed a free-trade agreement with the United States in January 2004. In addition to economic growth rates of 6 percent or more in recent years, Chilean political and legal institutions outperform most other Latin American nations, according to the World Bank, placing Chile in the top 15 percent of all countries in its acceptance of the rule of law.

In addition to their economic benefits, free-trade agreements are one of the few tools that the U.S. has to counter the anti-democratic, anti-American trends in Latin America. Congress needs to realize this. The proposed free-trade agreements with Colombia and Peru are win/win situations for all and should be approved as soon as possible.

Alejandro Chafuen, a U.S. citizen and native of Argentina, is president of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a think tank based in Arlington, Va.