Look out Chavez,Peru's Garcia may buck leftist wave Mon Jun 5, 2006 3:19pm ET LIMA, Peru, June 5 (Reuters) - If Alan Garcia's pledges are to be believed, his victory in Peru may signal that pragmatic social democracy is making more inroads in Latin America than headline-grabbing anti-U.S. populism in Venezuela and Bolivia. The election of Bolivian President Evo Morales and his backing from anti-U.S. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez have sparked worries in Washington about the influence in the region of leftists ready to befriend Iran or nationalize the operations of U.S. firms. But the victory of former President Garcia -- a self-proclaimed moderate -- over the Chavez-backed leftist army nationalist Ollanta Humala in Sunday's presidential election may have put a stop to that trend. "Garcia's victory may be a defining moment for Latin America... LINK ----------------------------- Calderon Wins Vote Recount in Mexico, Election Officials Say July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's former Energy Minister Felipe Calderon won a recount of votes in a presidential race that may not be decided for weeks because of a likely court challenge by rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Calderon, who pledges to stick with President Vicente Fox's pro-business policies, took 35.88 percent of the vote to Lopez Obrador's 35.31 percent, after electoral authorities completed the recount. Calderon, 43, led Lopez Obrador by about 1 percentage point in a preliminary tally released the day after the July 2 election.. LINK
I don't know where this stuff came from about Latin America moving to the far left as far as state-socialist economics. If anything,many of Latin America's leaders such as those in Brazil,Chile & Costa Rica are moving to the middle and these countries haven't rejected capitalism like many folks seem to believe.
Elections influenced by capital don't accurately reflect or reflect at all various leftist and other tendencies within a society. It makes perfect sense that as the bourgeoisie become richer and thus gain more power (because money is power) that they are able to control the elections and purge leftists who are not backed by private businesses (since many of them seek to nationalize them). If you don't what is driving the leftist tendency in Latin America, then why the hell do you criticize it at all? Since the begining there have been extreme class contradictions in Latin America, and its not a suprise in this day and age that those contradictions are becoming too great and bursting. Do you not value health care, education, food, and other things or do you simply not allow yourself the luxury of examining what the other side has to say? Is it in your personality to be conservative?
1. Free market proponets do value healthcare,education,food etc. I think the primary difference between economic socialist and the free market minded is in how these things are to be financed and managed. 2. You don't have to be a conservative to believe that free markets is the better way to run and manage an economy. I'am actually "on the left" when it comes to various social issues. Like I pointed out,not all Latin countries(Chile,Brazil,Costa Rica etc) have rejected free market capitalism and Free trade. Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales shouldn't be viewed as the representatives for Latin America.
Socialism wins in developing countries because it sounds better. But just like every socialistic system on earth, the leftists in South America promise things they simply can not promise. People learn this, they look at places like The United States, India, Japan, and realize that capitalism and free markets create wealth. In America, we argue about the distribution of wealth. At least we have a wealth to argue about.
