Skip to main content

"Leftist Wave": The Resurfacing of Left-wing Governments in Latin America

First, it was Evo Morales of Bolivia. Afterwards, it was Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. And now,it's Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista movement, out of all parties, of Nicaragua. The wave of electoral victories by leftist parties in the Western hemisphere has come to show that the rightwing certainly is wrong on most parts, and is losing support fast. Then again, "anti-Americanism" is rife in this part of the world. Of course, when it comes to bigger nations intervening in the affairs of "the little guys", you can expect a warm response to such meddling... right?

But that aside, Latin America was a major Cold War front back in the 50's onwards. From it arose famous figures, such as Che Guevara (who, while glorified and immortalized on t-shirts, baseball caps, and posters, was a murderer at best), Fidel Castro, Augusto Pinochet, and - who would've guessed it? - Daniel Ortega. During the era of the Cold War, many democratically-elected leftist leaders of Latin American nations were deposed in U.S.-government-sanctioned coups; thousands of innocents paid dearly with their lives as a result of this intervention and its consequences. As a result, many people suffered under rightwing oppressive dictatorships, or were decimated by rightwing militant factions. Whatever the case, Latin America has proven to be an interesting case of interventionism, moreso because of the icons, the events, the atrocities, the leaders, and the desperation that was a trademark of this era of post-WW2 interventionism and imperialism.

But what will become of this situation? Will the American government actually set its sights on these nations and turn each one of them into more Iraqs and Afghanistans, just to install leaders who would abide by the whims of the American government? Who knows, really? I am not a fan of leftism or rightism, but I'd take a lefty over a rightwinger any day since leftwingers tend to stand up more for social justice issues. Anyways, we'll see how this plays out...

Salaam, from Saracen

P.S. For those interested in interventionist policies running rampant in the Americas, I recommend Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of Imperialism by Greg Gandin. While I managed to read only a couple of excerpts from this book, I have to say that it's quite comprehensive and well-cited from what I have seen. But of course, Gandin is a staunch Chomskyite, so he might be anti-American for the sake of being anti-American, but anti-American might mean anti-American-government at all times.

UPDATE!!! Never knew this was coming, but Ecuador joined the list, with Rafael Correa's leftwing victory in the Ecuadorian elections. Correa is a friend of Chavez, and will most likely become a thorn on the side of rightwing politics in the region as well.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Politics as an "Outflow of Culture": Unmasking Racism in today's Socioeconomic Scene

A common yet grave fallacy is to assume that (the actions of) (part of) the infrastructure of a particular country at a particular time and place is derived from a singular cause, of which a metaphysical nature attributed to said cause would be even more so. That said, attributing (a perception of) (failed) politics as an "outflow" of a country's culture is in my honest opinion a crock of bull. I'm not denying that culture and politics are related: there clearly is a relationship between the two in the broader historical context. However, this reductionist outlook panders to more than your garden variety racism, itself being built on misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Why is that? First of all, consider that politics and culture are mutually exclusive concepts, although their definitions may not appear to be so on the surface. Politics (according to the pseudo-omniscient Wikipedia [1] ) is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The...

Book Review: "The Third Chimpanzee" by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is sort of a rock star in the sphere of biogeography (and science in general depending on your perspective). He is more a doom-sayer than a soothe-sayer, a prophet warning of the destruction of society and mankind as a whole. His magnum opus and prophetic text " Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" has received accolades from a variety of sources, the least of which was the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Having read that book myself, I came into his lesser-known essay " The Third Chimpanzee " with the expectation that it would be entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Gladly, I was not disappointed, but a glaring issue exists that I will address later. The first book published by Jared Diamond, " The Third Chimpanzee " explores the progression of human evolution in four parts. In the first, he explores the biological premises of our relationship to two other primate species, the common and pygmy chimpanzees (now c...

On "Leviathan", by Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (Part 1: On Man)

Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan , or The Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil,  is a veritable juggernaut (pun intended) of a book. It is Hobbes' magnum opus, having been circulated widely by the turn of the 17th and 18th Centuries at a time when England was plunged into civil war. Rather than rebel against the new political order (a war crime according to Hobbes which I will revisit later in this post), Hobbes' central thesis is to submit to the absolute authority of an established commonwealth (preferably, in Hobbes' point of view, a "Christian" one), which he compares to the overwhelming biblical sea monster, the Leviathan. Having just finished reading it, I would like to convey my thoughts on his central themes in as short a post as allowed by the breadth of the knowledge he passed on with this read. For this post, I will stick to part 1 (On Man), and deal with the subsequent parts of the book in later posts. Summary of P...