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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:52 pm Post subject: Mr. Chavez's Neighborhood |
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He's not very popular there.
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Venezuela's cocksure president, Hugo Ch�vez, might take a sobering glance through the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, conducted this spring and released over the summer. Of the seven Latin American nations polled, large majorities of Chileans (75 percent), Brazilians (74 percent), Peruvians (70 percent), Mexicans (66 percent), and Bolivians (59 percent) express little or no confidence in Ch�vez "to do the right thing regarding world affairs." As Pew puts it, "He is widely recognized--and widely mistrusted--throughout Latin America." Even in Argentina, perhaps the most anti-American country in the region, a full 43 percent of respondents have little or no confidence in Ch�vez.
That's not all. Majorities in Brazil (65 percent), Chile (60 percent), Mexico (55 percent), and Bolivia (53 percent), along with a plurality in Peru (47 percent), agree that "most people are better off in a free market economy, even though some people are rich and some are poor." Indeed, a whopping 72 percent of Venezuelans agree with that statement. "There is broad support for free-market economic policies across Latin America," Pew reports, "despite the election in the past decade of leftist leaders."
The term "leftist," though often used to describe authoritarian radicals such as Ch�vez, is also appropriated for left-wing democrats like Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Luiz In�cio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The leftward drift of many Latin American countries in recent years should not be confused with a massive shift into the Ch�vez camp. Most Latin governments, whether center-right or center-left, have upheld the institutions of democracy and
embraced responsible fiscal policies.
"I don't see this big, looming, radical lurch to the left," says Carol Graham, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She points to the emergence of "market-friendly reformers" in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and elsewhere. The conservative Otto Reich, who served as a senior diplomat for Latin America under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush, stresses that Washington need not fear the "democratic left," epitomized by Bachelet and Lula, which Reich separates from the "extreme," antidemocratic left, epitomized by Ch�vez. Since 1990, Reich notes, the Chilean economic miracle has been piloted by a center-left coalition, with stunning results. "Chile is a true Latin American success case," which should caution against viewing the Latin left as monolithic.
Ch�vez may be a throwback to the old South American caudillos, who blended populism, authoritarianism, and military rule. But even his two supposed prot�g�s, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, are hardly carbon copies. In Nicaragua, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega regained power with less than 40 percent of the vote, thanks to election rules that make it possible for a candidate to win the presidency with just 35 percent. But a majority of Nicaraguans voted for one of the two center-right candidates. Thus far, Ortega has accepted the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Talk of a populist surge in the region contains some truth. But Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua are three of Latin America's weakest, poorest countries, never fully integrated into the global economy. As Christopher Sabatini, senior policy director at the Americas Society and editor in chief of Americas Quarterly, points out, the elections of Morales and Correa were based less on ideology than on practical grievances. And Ortega's victory was certainly "not a triumph of leftism," but rather "a triumph of electoral manipulation." |
http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/116buscn.asp |
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Dome Vans
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow, another accurate News Corporation article. Must be true. |
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Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| He's right, BJWD. Don't you know that Marxism is the wave of the future? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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CAFTA v. oil-financed authoritarian Leftism. Who will win?
My guess is that no matter what happens, Venezuela loses. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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444
Last edited by thepeel on Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:52 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Wait a minute, what do is ee..yet another Chavez thread big bird is too chicken to participate in anymore? |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:49 am Post subject: |
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In Nicaragua, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega regained power with less than 40 percent of the vote, thanks to election rules that make it possible for a candidate to win the presidency with just 35 percent. But a majority of Nicaraguans voted for one of the two center-right candidates. Thus far, Ortega has accepted the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
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I'm not sure I would hold up Nicaragua as representing the shining spirit of indiviudal liberty underlying market economics.
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Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos has signed into law a ban on all abortions, even in cases when a woman's life is judged to be at risk.
Previous legislation from a century ago allowed an abortion if three doctors certified that the woman was in danger.
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The former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was a defender of Nicaragua's limited abortion rights and a critic of the Catholic church when he led a left-wing Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.
He has since been reconciled with the church and has become a strident opponent of abortion.
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Nicaragua is the only Latin American country with a law that prohibits sex between people of the same sex," said Emily Wu (吳佳珊), an Amnesty International Taiwan member. "That is not only a violation of the Nicaraguan Constitution, but also of international human rights."
Article 204 of Nicaragua's criminal code stipulates that "anyone who induces, promotes, propagandizes or practices sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex commits the crime of sodomy and shall incur one to three years' imprisonment."
The article was enacted in 1992 and remains effective today, surviving changes to laws initiated by left-wing President Daniel Ortega after his election last year.
"Many discriminatory clauses in Nicaraguan laws have been changed since the change of power last year, but this particular article remains in effect because of pressure from the Catholic Church," said Wu Chia-chen (吳佳臻), a spokeswoman for the demonstration.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6161396.stm
http://tinyurl.com/ysg4jq |
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Leavingkorea
Joined: 27 Apr 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:35 am Post subject: |
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| Also nice that Chavez last week decided to mandate that private education institutes must all teach his socialist crap to students. |
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