Thursday, July 30, 2009

Latin America's Swing To The Right -- A Commentary

From The Guardian:

Progressive parties across Latin America can't find charismatic leaders and are losing ground to their rightwing opponents.

A new political trend is taking shape in Latin America. For the past six years or so, international political talk about the region has been all about voters' swirl to the left. The new and under-reported story is the re-emergence of the right.

Chile, Uruguay and Brazil are the three countries in the region that best epitomise the mellow, well-behaved left that the international right is willing to praise from time to time – as opposed to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia. Their governments are seen as financially responsible, have a good number of socially-friendly policies and the three presidents – Michelle Bachelet, Tabaré Vázquez and Lula – are both respected abroad and very popular at home.

Read more ....

My Comment: When you look at old men like the Fidel Brothers running Cuba as a personal fiefdom for the past 50 years. Venezuela's Chavez producing (repeatedly) 6 hour lectures on TV. Nicaragua's Ortega's allegations of pedophilia. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa infatuation and past support of narco groups like FARC. Bolivia's Morales support of coca farmers.

From my vantage point .... these is nothing to be impressed with such a gang of "leaders". Take the power of the state that they control, and each and everyone of these men will just become pathetic caricatures of some cartoon character.

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