Articles and opinion columns by Latin American analysts who take an unwavering stand for freedom, including members and directors of the IID.
Guided democracy is a government that, although formally democratic, functions as a de facto autocracy. A guided democracy is legitimized by elections, but such elections do not change the state’s policies. The elections may be technically free and fair, but they are cleverly controlled so that people can exercise their rights without being able to change public policy.
The United States have been enormously successful in their immigrants becoming integrated, but today, unlike countries like Canada or Australia, are not able to agree in a system which allows for safe, legal and orderly immigration, because there is not any room for a bipartisan agreement.
Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes pursue the very same objective: preserve power. Perpetual power, of course, demands the suppression of freedom. In so doing all means are valid. We thus find throughout world history strange bedfellows such as Mr Castro and Mr Videla; Mr Putin and Mr Orban; Mr Duterte and HRH Mohamed Bin Salman.
In our hemisphere, Canada and the United States top the list with IQs of 99 and 98 respectively. South of the border, Uruguay is highest with an IQ of 96 and Haiti lowest with an IQ of 70. My South Florida readers would want to know that Cuba has an IQ of 85, and Venezuela of 84. Individual IQ scores of 80 to 89 are in the “dullness” category.
Capital flight from emerging markets has reached one trillion US dollars. Latin America’s contribution is a little bit over half that figure. This allows us to better understand the relative stagnation of Latin America. It is experiencing a continuing financial hemorrhage that impairs the economy to function. That half a trillion that flows to the US and to a lesser extent to Europe is the lifeblood that the economic system needs to grow ; create employment and build up a healthy middle class that through aggregate demand promotes innovation and more growth.
The dictatorship in Bolivia is over 15 years old and the world’s democracies still hesitate to treat it as such. For over a decade Bolivia is a country with political prisoners, persecuted, and exiled, without the rule of law, without the separation and independence of the branches of government, and with a judicial system used as an instrument for repression that has institutionalized the violation of human rights. The recent arrest of former President Janine Añez, the unleashed harassment and persecution are a repeat of cases like “October 2003”, “La Calancha”, “El Porvenir”, “Terrorism” and more, that prove the dictatorship in Bolivia has all Bolivians in a state of helplessness.
When it comes to supply and demand, we understand intuitively the supply-side effect of immigrants such as an increase of immigrant workers that drives down wages. Yet, we fail to see the demand-side of immigrants as consumers. When selling our labor, immigrants that sell the same labor, may hurt us in the marketplace. But, we are helped, in the same marketplace, by immigrants that buy the goods and services that we sell.
The Eurasia Group describes Latin América’s performance in 2021 as disappointing. To back its rating the Eurasia Group lists among other weaknesses the region’s precarious fiscal conditions and the economic impact of covid 19 which has enveloped voters in a get even sentiment vis-à-vis incumbents while searching for miraculous leaderships. Under such conditions nobody expects the region to successfully bounce back either this or next year.
When the exit option is unavailable, voice is the only option for any opposition. In Hirschman’s view, “…the role of voice increases as the opportunities for exit decline.” On the other hand, the easier the exit option, the lower the prospect of voice. “The presence of the exit alternative can therefore tend to atrophy the development of the art of voice.” Knowing this, oppressive regimes have long sought for political enemies and critics to remove themselves from the national sphere.
And as Morales seizes the Bolivian state through a new cast of political actors authoritarianism not only is armor-plated but will proceed to total take over through what Marxists describe as the soft means of the super structure. That is through the reinvention of the country’s history by means of retelling it and changing its narrative. This task demands the concrete presence of enemies that can be shown, humiliated and disfranchised. Jeannine Anez is set to play such leading role.
