NewsRecord Weekly Publication

Friendly Observer

By Arthur Keefe

Cheer the voice 

of the people

The history of Latin America is one of deep tragedy. The Incas and other war-like tribes imposed barbaric regimes across Central America before the arrival of Europeans. Human sacrifice and slavery were the foundation of the Inca Empire.

The Spanish and Portuguese displaced them with their own version of barbarism and genocide. Many tribes were virtually exterminated by a combination of military massacre and virulent diseases against which the 'Indians' had no resistance. Some countries today, such as Chile and Argentina have only small pockets of indigenous people remaining and in the more Northern areas, these are the rural peasants, until recently ruled by the landed white descendants of the Spanish and, in Brazil, Portuguese settlers.

However, things are changing fast. This is seen as threatening to the USA and its political and economic interests. Despotic right wing military or undemocratic regimes, especially in Central America, suited the USA well. They saw it as a bulwark against communism and a good basis for closing deals to extract the rich natural resources of oil, metals, timber, etc.

Establishing business links with corrupt and authoritarian dictators, propped up by the CIA, illegal military action (as in Nicaragua and El Salvador) was quite straight forward. The voiceless majority of these countries gained little from the exploitation of their own countries, but this was of little concern to American policy makers.

To their credit, many American citizens protested loudly, but they were written off as hippies and communist sympathizers. However, the very large populations of South and Central America began to stir, encouraged by Cuba taking back its independence and standing up to Uncle Sam. Che Guevara became, and still is, a folk hero (way beyond the mere prosaic truth of his limited impact when alive!). Peasant uprisings, but mostly democratic movements began to wrest power from the oligarchs and elites. The first ever elected Marxist president in the world was democratically elected in Chile. The Americans sabotaged the economy and supported the military in removing him and installing a military dictator for 27 years, but the process of democratization was established and he was eventually forced to hand over power to an elected social democrat.

Democracy is now well established in Chile and power changes hands through the ballot box. Four left of center and one (current) right of center governments had emerged. The process is not complete as the armed forces still have seats reserved in the Senate, but this looks ready to be dropped.

In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez was elected in landslide elections, as an avowadly left wing (not communist) president. Despite an American backed coup 10 years ago (which nearly succeeded), and other American sponsored recall plebiscites (which failed badly) he has now won his fourth election.

The middle classes have consistently voted and acted against him, but the poor idolize him and his pro-poor social programs. He is fortunate to be able to fund these from huge oil revenues and social democrats like myself remain uneasy at his repression from media and other weaknesses regarding civil rights. However, there is no doubt that Venezuela is a polarized but strongly democratic country.

Bolivia elected the first-ever fully indigenous person to be its president anywhere in Latin America.

Much poorer than Venezuela, but with big supplies of gas and minerals, Bolivia's Morales has set out the same kind of reforms as Chavez and, indeed, the two work very closely together. He, too, is a democratic socialist, not a communist and, as in  Venezuela, he is supported by most of the rural poor, but not the middle and upper class, who stand to lost from his redistributive policies.

Argentina and Brazil have also ousted dictators and have progressive presidents of the left, although not as radical as Morales, Chavez and Castro. Other countries in Central America are moving in the same direction.

The USA is very unhappy at these seismic shifts on its continent, but no longer interferes as obviously or as dramatically as before. One reason is a growing cooperation amongst the Latin American countries and even world opinion (although that did not prevent the invasion of Iraq!).

So why write an article about developments on the other side of the world?

Firstly, it is to send out a loud cheer for the victory of democracy in Venezuela and the continuation of the Chavez social revolution. Secondly, it is to provoke thought and discussion about the other Spanish and American ex-colonies here: The Philippines. If changes which benefit the majority can occur through social and political processes there, why not here? The historical parallels are striking, but the progressive political movements we see there are largely absent here. Why is this so?