Latin American Leaders Move to Extend Their Rule

Yahoo News ^ | 11/2/2009 | Yahoo News

[Dallas59]

MEXICO CITY – Horrified by the excesses of dictatorship, Latin Americans discarded the strongman model at the end of the 20th century and limited politicians' time in power.

Now a new wave of populist presidents is trying to do away with those limits, arguing they impede real change. As leaders in country after country move to extend their rule, opponents fearing a return to the "caudillo" era of authoritarian power have done everything to stop them — from throwing eggs to staging coups.

[Dallas59]

With the help of the current US government...

[La Lydia]

The previous US government was distracted by the Middle East and couldn’t really concentrate on what was happening in Latin America. The current US government is thrilled to see tyranny and socialism fall on the heads of Latin Americans.

[Travis McGee]

Hugo Obama’s wet dream is to pose in the middle of that photo.

[marron]

“Now a new wave of caudillos is trying to do away with those limits”

No kidding.

Populism is the default political philosophy in Latin America. It comes in various flavors, populism left and populism right, pro-church populism, anti-church populism, pro-business populism and anti-business populism, but it all comes out to the same thing. Centralized power and a directed economy. In such societies disfunction is a blessing; it is the source of what freedom there is.

[Iron Munro]

Now a new wave of populist presidents is trying to do away with those limits, arguing they impede real change.

Lets correct that erroneous statement:

Now a new wave of populist hard-core, leftist, dictatorial presidents is trying to do away with those limits, arguing they impede real change.
.