US secretary of state strikes a note worthy of Fidel Castro or Hugo Chávez during tour of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia

It is a call you would expect from Fidel Castro or Hugo Chávez: soak Latin America's rich to help the poor and build a fairer society. "In many places it is a simple fact that the wealthy do not pay their fair share. We can't mince words about this."

The latest newspaper column from Cuba's retired communist leader? Another anti-capitalist broadside from Venezuela's president?

Step forward Hillary Clinton, secretary of state for the gringo empire, aka the United States.

Clinton has made tax equity a theme of a four-nation tour through the region this week, saying wealthy elites are starving governments of funds for infrastructure and poverty relief.

"Despite progress in some places, tax and budget systems are ineffective and inefficient in much of the hemisphere," she said in Ecuador's capital, Quito.

"Levels of tax evasion are unacceptably high as much or more than 50% in some of the region's economies when it comes to personal income tax."

Before anyone could give her a Che Guevara T-shirt she added: "This is not class warfare or us-versus-them rhetoric. It is a matter of recognising that this is not a zero-sum game and that the winner-takes-all approach to our economic future is shortsighted and obsolete. More inclusive growth will make our entire economies stronger and more competitive over the long term, to the benefit of all."

Clinton visited Peru and Ecuador earlier this week and is due today in Colombia before flying on to Barbados.

That inequality and poverty scar the region is hardly news but Latin Americans are unaccustomed to being lectured about it from the power that spent much of the cold war plotting against leftist governments and shoring up rightwing allies.

Clinton, facing tough diplomatic battles with some of her hosts over trade and politics, is thought to have chosen equity as a theme to give Washington a progressive makeover.

It seemed to help melt Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, an occasional icy critic of the US, who said governments that sought equality used to be branded communist dictatorships.

Calling his guest "dearest Hillary" at a joint news conference, Correa expressed admiration for her and Barack Obama, and signalled improved relations.

"The new left that I represent is not anti anything. We are not anti-capitalist. We are not anti-American. We are not anti-imperialist. We are pro-dignity, pro-sovereignty, pro-social justice, pro-good life for our people. We are in favour of the good things.

"We love the United States very much."