Latin American Good Health

10th May, 2006

Latin America is still widely viewed through the prism of caricatures of brutal military dictators, romantic guerrillas, downtrodden peasants and meddlesome Uncle Sam. In fact, with one exception, it going through a process of democratic evolution and growth, not backwardness as earlywarning has consistently pointed out.

The exception is Venezuela, where the prognosis is deeply worrying as the war of words between Caracas and Washington escalates. Yet Venezuela is untypical; as a petro-state, it can afford to pursue radical social programmes and subsidise sympathisers among neighbours.

As revealed by earlywarning , matters have taken a very serious turn with President Chavez’s decision to ‘arm the people’ – training a huge potential militia to resist what he claims will be inevitable US aggression.

This almost invites an American pre-emptive strike, particularly now that Chavez’s democratic credentials are wearing thin after uncontested parliamentary elections in December.

The Bush administration’s rhetoric has been ...

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