Latin Americans Unhappy With New Regimes

CARACAS, Venezuela - Latin Americans have spent the past few years getting rid of entrenched systems that have failed them. But some are beginning to realize their new leaders aren't making life any better than the old did.

With much of the region gripped by uncertainty over struggling economies, the social unrest that is now paralyzing Venezuela could foreshadow wider threats to newfound democracies across the region.

After President Bush promised to make this "the century of the Americas," the U.S. government's focus has shifted to the war on terrorism.

But the major concern in Latin America harks back to Bill Clinton's mantra: "It's the economy, stupid." Without a strong recovery in the United States, whose economy dominates the Americas, there is little Latin American leaders of any political stripe will be able to do.

For two decades, the region has been replacing authoritarian regimes with democratic governments in a U.S.-oriented, free-market mold. The problem has been that new policies haven't done much to improve people's lives.

Economic woes led to the 2000 election in Mexico of Vicente Fox, a conservative businessman who toppled 70 years of single-party rule with promises of huge economic growth and first-world status for the country.

Discontent in Brazil led to the election this year of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist former union boss who promised to make fighting hunger his top priority. His victory was seen as a rejection of the free-market policies of the defeated government, which had curbed runaway inflation but left the economy stagnant and millions in poverty or jobless.

Ecuadorans just elected as president Lucio Gutierrez, a former army colonel who led a short-lived coup in 2000 aimed at ending endemic corruption and halting the spread of poverty.

Argentina has seen a revolving door of presidents since the country defaulted last year on much of its $141 billion foreign debt. A presidential election in April will determine whether the country continues on the free-market path or moves to the left.

Venezuelans, meanwhile, are learning unconventional leaders may not fulfill hopes either.

The radical populist Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998 and again in 2000, promising to remake society after a 40-year alternation of power between two corrupt, centrist political parties. But he has been unable to make the once envied oil-based economy grow and has seen unemployment and poverty rise.

A powerful but confused opposition movement briefly ousted Chavez last April only to see him return two days later. The country is now a month into a general strike and sometimes violent street protests aimed at ousting him.

The protesters demonstrate in the name of democracy, despite the fact that Chavez's term lasts until 2007 and the constitution doesn't allow a referendum on his reign until August.

"We all thought he'd bring prosperity, but he's making us poorer," said Eliezer Chavez, a 20-year-old computer consultant who voted for Chavez but has joined the demonstrations demanding his removal.

He said the opposition movement is "totally democratic," because democracy for him means people can oust an elected leader they feel isn't doing a good job - whether the constitution allows it or not.

Part of the threat to the region's young democracies is that democracy in Latin America is largely superficial. There are elections, but leaders often do not serve all the people. The idea of a civic spirit is not deeply ingrained.

"These societies have adopted some of the more superficial aspects of democracy and market economies," said Steve Johnson, a Latin American policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. "You have electoral democracy, but you're basically still electing an autocrat."

There is no indication that the region will reverse its economic slide - or that its institutions can stand up to the challenge.

"I think things will get worse in Latin America, and the problems will deteriorate further," said Sidney Weintraub, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, another Washington think tank.

"I think you'll get breakdowns in democracy, and as the economies fail people will experiment in ways that will only hurt them more."

Fidel Castro - Cuba

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved***During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, is now the effective head of the army. Arab terrorists and Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.

"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Marcos Ferreira says, while showing proof that former Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks. Chavez gave instructions to destroy records on 10 suspected Hezbollah fund-raisers conducting suspicious financial transactions in the islands of Margarita, Aruba and Curaçao, and the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, according to Ferreira. The Venezuelan president then dissolved key military counterterrorist units by firing 16 highly experienced, U.S.-trained intelligence officers at the time of the terrorist plane attacks in New York City and Washington. Circulos Bolivarianos leader Lina Ron celebrated the event by burning an American flag in the center of Caracas.***

Thousands of people march in Caracas, Venezuela asking for early elections or President Hugo Chavez resignation, Friday, Dec 20, 2002. (AP Photo/Estaben Felix)

Colombian `peace lab' erupts into violence*** VISTA HERMOSA, Colombia -- Sensing a guerrilla ambush, the soldiers stealthily crept toward an abandoned sport utility vehicle parked on the outskirts of this southern Colombian town. Inside the SUV, they found the body of a 14-year-old boy. His throat had been slit, his body wrapped in explosives. "Those SOBs," says Maj. Oscar Fugueredo as he recounts the grisly discovery and shows photos of the teenager who had been slain by Marxist guerrillas. "They made a child bomb!" The killing was among 133 homicides that have been committed in Vista Hermosa and nearby towns since February, when Colombian troops reclaimed a 16,000-square-mile area from rebels after the collapse of peace talks. Officials believe most of the slayings were politically motivated.

Then-President Andres Pastrana pledged that government forces would protect the region's estimated 96,000 residents when he ordered the soldiers to move into the zone. But the hellish facts on the ground show that life in the area has become more perilous. The murder rate has jumped, and some peasant families have been uprooted from their lands. "Although the guerrillas committed numerous acts of violence ... when they controlled the region, the levels of violence have increased since the army retook the zone," says a recent report by Amnesty International, the independent human-rights group. "Civilians have been the victims of systematic attacks."

For more than three years, Vista Hermosa was part of a so-called "peace laboratory." The town sits in a vast region of jungle and plains that was ceded by the Colombian government to the nation's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in late 1998 in an effort to promote peace talks and end a civil war that began in 1964. The rebel-held area became known as the "despeje" -- Spanish for the "clearing" -- because Pastrana had ordered all government forces to withdraw. The zone was one of the few areas in Colombia free of combat, because just one side was in control.

But peace talks between the government and the rebels broke down in February, and Pastrana ordered the military to retake the region, which is roughly the size of Switzerland and covers about 4 percent of Colombia's territory. At the time, it was widely feared that outlawed right-wing paramilitary groups -- which, in addition to government forces, are fighting the rebels -- would move into the zone and go on a rampage against accused guerrilla collaborators. But in an odd twist, most of the 133 slayings reported in the region over the past 10 months have been blamed on the FARC. ***

Venezuela's reality unruly, undemocratic ***The shootings, aggression against the press and other acts of violence are too numerous to mention, but they share a common trait: Virtually all have come from the government and its supporters. What has probably contributed most to Chavez' fall in popularity from 80 percent to under 20 percent today, however, is the gross corruption and mismanagement of the biggest oil revenue bonanza in Venezuelan history. He has not fulfilled a single campaign promise regarding public services, housing, poverty, health, corruption, infrastructure, foreign debt, etc. While his country falls further into chaos, despair and ruin, he buys a $85 million Airbus presidential jet/palace and uses the bully pulpit endlessly to attack any group that dares take a critical stance: the church, the media, business, organized labor, ranchers and political parties, among others.

As the population has steadily turned against him, so have most of the closest of his original collaborators, including many of the officers who were involved in his bloody failed 1992 coup attempt against the elected and legitimate government of Carlos Andres Perez. The latest to jump ship is his wife Marisabel, who after recently leaving him went on national TV and pleaded with him to "listen to the voice of the people." With gasoline depleted, food supplies running out and daily marches and street rallies, we have had no Christmas this year. But as most middle-class families here, we are more than willing to withstand whatever hardships are necessary during the general strike to peacefully rescue Venezuela from this madman.***

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.