Following the election of Hugo Chávez to the Venezuelan presidency in 1998, numerous Latin American nations have elected left-wing leaders in what is often referred to as the region's "Pink Tide." These new left-wing leaders include Morales in Bolivia, Lula in Brazil, Kirchner in Argentina, Vasquez in Uruguay, Correa in Ecuador, and Ortega in Nicaragua. Other countries have also either maintained center-left governments or shifted slightly to the left (Chile, Haiti, Panama, Jamaica, Peru). The last holdouts mainly stretch between Mexico (where the presidential election was stolen from left-wing Mexico City mayor AMLO) and Colombia (where major Bush ally and little Napoleon Álvaro Uribe maintains his grip on the paramilitaries murdering and terrorizing leftists and union organizers throughout the country).
With the election of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the right-wing grip on Central America has begun to ease. Guatemala, a country that has been terrorized by right-wing governments and paramilitaries backed by the U.S. since 1954, holds one of the most atrocious human rights records on the globe. From Wikipedia:
In 1954, Arévalo's freely elected Guatemalan successor, Jacobo Arbenz, was overthrown by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a small group of Guatemalans (landowners, the old military caste, and the Catholic Church), after the government instituted decree No. 900, which expropriated large tracts of land owned by the United Fruit Company, a U.S.-based banana merchant (Chiquita Banana). The CIA codename for the coup was Operation PBSUCCESS (it was the CIA's second successful overthrow of a foreign government after the 1953 coup in Iran). Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas was installed as president in 1954 and ruled u ntil he was assassinated by a member of his personal guard in 1957.
In the upcoming election however, there seems to be a good chance that left-wing candidate Álvaro Colom can advance the Pink Tide in Central America (elections are scheduled for September):
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Álvaro Colom remains the most popular presidential contender in Guatemala, according to a poll by Borge y Asociados published in El Periódico. 25.9 per cent of respondents would support the left-wing National Union of Hope (UNE) member in this year's ballot, down 2.7 points since April.
Otto Pérez Molina of the right-wing Patriot Party (PP) is second with 15.3 per cent, followed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú of Encounter for Guatemala (EPG) with 6.2 per cent, and Alejandro Giammattei of the Grand National Alliance (GANA) with 5.6 per cent.
Oh, and a little known fact: The daughter of unrepentant former Guatemalan dictator/butcher Efraín Ríos Montt is married to a Republican Congressman from Illinois, Jerry Weller. Do read about all the conflicts of interest in Wikipedia.
In July 2004, Weller announced that he was engaged to three-term Guatemalan Congresswoman Zury Ríos Montt, daughter of former strongman Efraín Ríos Montt. On November 20, 2004, the two married at her father's home in Antigua Guatemala, his second marriage and her fourth.
Anyone else need to vomit? Attempts by courts in Spain to bring Ríos Montt to justice are ongoing, as far as I know.
(Photo by Hugo Oliva)
2 comments:
the left-wing National Union of Hope (UNE) from Alvaro Colomo is NOT A LEFT-WING. Everybody in Guatemala now is just other political parti to the service to the Guatemalan High class, the army and the Narcos.
anonymous:
I would agree that centre-left or centrist is probably more apt, but considering that they've never held much political power in Guatemala it's really hard to classify where they would govern on the political spectrum. Colom is a bit of a chameleon, and I could certainly see him governing to the left if he feels that is the direction the country is moving.
Only time will tell I suppose.
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