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On Monday April 19, El Nuevo Herald published
a Page One story headlined “Kerry in Miami
criticizes Bush's foreign policy // There must
be an ‘approximation’ with the Castro regime,
he says” that said the Democratic presidential
candidate, interviewed on NBC's
Meet the
Press, “said he opposes the
lifting of the trade embargo against the
island, but believes there must be some kind
of communication and conversations with the
government of Fidel Castro, and suggested
easing the travel of Americans and the
remittance of money to Cuba.”
Click
here to read why we call it BS |
Democracy fails disenchanted Latin Americans
By
Max Castro
Latin Americans are so
disenchanted with the failure of democracy to deliver a better life that a clear
majority (54.7 percent) is willing to support an authoritarian government if it
would solve their economic problems.
A story by Tyler Bridges
in the April 22 edition of The Miami Herald reported that stunning
finding. It is based on public opinion surveys in 18 Latin American countries
carried out by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which has just
released an extensive study on the state of democracy in the region (htpp://democracia.undp.org/informe).
Why have Latin Americans
lost faith in democracy? Is it the fault of bad leaders, “an adolescent
political culture,” or corruption, as the Bush administration and our local
pundits consistently imply?
There definitely is
something gravely wrong when there is such a high level of disillusion with
democracy among people who for decades suffered the depredations of
dictatorship. But the main causes lie elsewhere. What is wrong is the
accumulated frustration of a quarter century during which the standard of living
has worsened for tens of millions of Latin Americans. This comes at a time when
aspirations have soared among an increasingly educated, urban, and youthful
Latin American population plugged into the world.
Democracy, the retreat of
the state in favor of the market, the privatization of nearly everything, the
opening of the Latin American economy to foreign investment and imports, were
supposed to bring prosperity. Many of these neoliberal capitalist measures would
be painful, the people were told, but there would be a reward at the end of the
road.
Latin Americans were
patient. For a long time, they gave the new policies a chance to show results.
Now the results are in, and Latin Americans have lost their patience. The
reasons are not difficult to divine. In 1980, as military juntas began to give
way to elected governments, 40.5 percent of Latin Americans were poor. By 2003,
Latin American poverty had increased to 43.9 percent of a much larger
population. These figures don't reflect fully the rise in inequality during the
same period. Yet, as their own fortunes declined, the growing legions of the
poor and the sinking middle classes were keenly aware of the increasing opulence
of a few.
Click here for entire Max
Castro column
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