Re: Left-trends in Latin America 2

[Rwchina@aol.com]

They did a pretty good job of ousting Aristide in Haiti a couple of years ago, despite all the blather about democracy.  I think there has been a sea change in LA over the past years, and it may "take."  It has certainly been facilitated by the "distraction" of the empire in the Middle East.  But I also agree with Mobo that it is very fragile as of now, in part because the bottom up pressure has not yet been very well consolidated on the national state level except, increasingly, in Venezuela and maybe now Bolivia.    This is the overall weakness of the new "anti-globalization" movement, which not only is not, but in some cases is very resistant to the concept of, exercising state power.  The problem is that if the new left governments fail to "deliver," they can quickly find themselves under renewed "conservative" pressure, especially since the economies in all cases remain primarily dominated by capitalist interests tied to global forces.  I think the experience of the CR is relevant here, since I believe that it suffered from a similar inability to consolidate at the center the democratic gains made at the base, though of course the context was completely different than that in LA at the present.

Bob