The Road to Democracy in Latin America

The interest of the task force is in identifying economic policies that will strengthen the economic progress of the countries of the hemisphere without undermining their near-universal commitment to democracy. It is in terms of economic progress that so many Latin American countries had turned in disappointing results ever since the start of the debt crisis in 1982. But we are seeking to remedy this without jeopardizing the area in which the region has by most people’s standards made historic progress since 1982, is establishing democracy.

There is a small but pretty robust econometric literature on the relationship between democracy and growth (e. g. , Barro 1996, Helliwell 1994, Svensson 1999, Tavares and Wacziarg 2001). There is a little evidence has much impact on growth overall; some channels are favorable, some are unfavorable but overall the effect is at best modest. The net effect may be slightly negative, but this effect is neither definite nor powerful enough to change the mind of anyone who believes in the value of democracy for its own sake. In contrast, there is strong evidence to believe n a positive relationship going from growth to democracy. As people become richer, one of the things they want is a say in how they are governed. Nondemocratic countries that are becoming richer are very likely to confront a problem at some stage. In some respects within Latin America are sharper today than ever before, at least post World War II. There is oft-remarked contrast between the modernizing socialism of Bachelet and Lula as against the old-fashioned populist socialism of the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales.

Latin America on the road to Democracy and Humanism The great revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara left Cuba for Bolivia with a mission to spread the struggle against world imperialism and was murdered by a CIA agent in Bolivia. In December, 2005, after nearly 39 years, Evo Morales, a poor coca farmer was elected Bolivia’s new president. In Bolivia, on the occasion of his installation, Morales requested a minute’s silence for Che and other millions of people who sacrificed their lives all over Latin America.

He said in his speech that his struggle was a continuation of of Ernesto Che Guevara’s mission. Evo Morales, Carlos Mesa was a neo-liberal politician who was thrown out of office, through elections followed by popular revolt. Ironically, he was himself brought to power in an upsurge of protest. But he failed to challenge neo-colonization and corporate greed and had to go long before his stipulated time in office.

The first signs of the regional revolt came in Venezuela in February 1989, when the poor spontaneously rose up against International Monetary fund-imposed price rises on basic goods. Through out the 1990s, movements against neo-colonialism grew. In Ecuador, President Luis Gutierrez was forced out from office in mid 2005, by an uprising. Although elected on an anti-neo-liberal platform, Gutierrez, like Bolivian president Mesa, abandoned his promises in an attempt to keep neo capitalism and its sponsor, United States happy.

In the recent years several pro-US and pro-US multinational comparison governments have been brought down by popular revolt in Latin America, and a growing number of government have been elected on platform that challenge American-orchestrated , neo-colonialist policies. It is, indeed becoming a fact that while the United States is becoming more and more fixated on the Muslim world, a region much closer is quietly spinning out of American control. American policies are being singled out as only serving the interest of killer multi-national corporations, while the poor are exploited and poverty perpetuates.

The increasing isolation of the US in the regio0n was demonstrated at the “Summit of the Americas” meeting in November, where the US failed to force through failed to force through its key project for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which was nothing but a trap to expose South America to domination and exploitation by US corporations. Though historians generally recognize the 1964 “Tonkin Gulf Resolution” as the juncture where America formally and openly took over prosecution of the war against North Vietnam (Maclear, 1981), an examination of events and American policy decisions prior to the August 2nd attack on the U. S. S.

Maddox suggest that the United States was irrevocably committed to a course of war in Vietnam as early as 1962. In fact, perhaps recalling his own country’s failed foray in Indochina, French President Charles de Gaulle, made a prescient remark to his American counterpart, John F. Kennedy, early that year (1962) regarding the United State’s growing involvement in Vietnam: “I predict that you will sink step by step into a bottomless military and political quagmire. ” (Lomperis, 1984, p. 58). In fairness to Kennedy, by the time de Gaulle issued this dire prediction America was already up to its waist in the Vietnam morass and sinking fast.

The Road to Democracy in Latin America The body of the paper should consist of approximately 27 lines of text per page, not including headings. The following section provides two typical elements of APA manuscripts as examples in this template: reference citations and quotations. Reference Citations Per APA guidelines, all sources must be cited on a separate References page. Within the body of the paper, a pointer containing the author’s last name, year of publication, and page range within parentheses (Erickson, 2000, pp. 24-67) indicates the cited text. The author’s last name orresponds with the entry on the References page, allowing readers to look up the source of the citation. An example of a References page is located on page 5 of this template. Quotations Guidelines for quotations are based upon the length of the quote. Quotes with fewer than 40 words are quoted directly in the sentence. According to the APA, this type of quote “should be incorporated into the text and enclosed in double quotation marks. ” Quotations longer than 40 words follow different guidelines. Include these quotes in an indented block. Start long quotes on a new line and indent 1 inch from the left margin.

Also, double-space the lines and omit quotation marks. The Long Quote 1st and the Long Quote More styles in this Word template are provided for formatting. If you quote more than one paragraph, indent the first line of additional paragraphs by . 5 inch. Include a reference citation after the closing punctuation. (Erickson, 2000, p. 34) For comprehensive style guidelines, refer to the APA online and print publications. References Castaneda, J. G. (May/June 2006) Foreign Affairs David Rockefeller (2002, Fall). Harvard Review of Latin America