The Rebirth of Populism in Latin America

[malaise]

http://www.coha.org/2006/08/22/coha-report-the-rebirth-of-populism-in-latin-america-poses-a/

<snip>
Although the failure of the Washington Consensus is not readily admitted in the U.S., many Latin American leaders are cautiously moving on. This is especially true now that populist movements fundamentally critical of neoliberal policies are supplanting many of the region’s most enduring political parties (some of which had populist origins). As Juan Forero recently reported in the New York Times, political analysts in Latin America perceive a crisis in the region’s political system as traditional parties that had evolved as bulwarks of patronage and stability are pushed aside. In Peru, for example, 36 parties now vie for power and voters. In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez and his “Bolivarian Revolution” have utterly displaced the old Acción Democrática and Copei parties. And in Mexico, even if López Obrador loses his campaign for a recount, his style of populist politics is unlikely to soon disappear in Mexico. This conclusion is so apparent that important elements of the former ruling PRI are proposing a “grand party of the left” uniting the PRI and the PRD in a populist/leftist anti-neoliberal coalition.
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Great read even though he says "Felipe Calderón seems to have edged out the PRD’s populist neoliberal critic Andrés Manuel López Obrador by the most razor thin of margins..."

[gula]

1. South America, despite all it's problems, is the only continent

that gives me any hope. I have totally fallen in love with the Salta region of Argentina as well as Chile's Altiplano. If things get any worse in North-America, that's where I'll be headed. (If they let me)