Robert Urbanek wrote:It is also about culture -- caudillo culture, in which a large portion of Latin America places its faith in authoritarian, populist male leaders.
You mean like Trump? I disqualify him. He came up with a bone spur excuse. Meanwhile Latin America has had various women presidents. The USA has 0 female presidents. Latin America has had let me see?
A lot more than the USA has had.
María Estela Martínez de Perón, best known as “Isabel” Perón, was not only the first female president of Latin America but the first female president of any republic in the world. As vice president of Argentina in 1974, Perón rose to power upon the death of then-husband and President Juan Domingo Perón. Criticized for her lack of experience in government affairs — something true of countless men that have held the same office — Perón came to power in a context of extreme economic crisis, strikes and paramilitary activities supported by the government. She was deposed in a coup and arrested after 632 days in office.
Three years later, in November 1979, also under a highly unstable political environment, Lidia Gueiler was elected Bolivia’s Constitutional Interim President. On top of an assassination attempt, Gueiler faced a complex socioeconomic scenario: As part of her stabilization plan, Gueiler allowed a 25% devaluation in the peso and cancelled energy subsidies, exacerbating existing social tensions. No candidate succeeded in winning a majority in the 1980 elections, and a coup toppled Guelier from power later that year.
A decade later, Violeta Barrios Torres — best known by her husband’s last name, Chamorro — became the first woman in the Americas to be elected president. She governed Nicaragua over a tumultuous seven-year period, in which she would disarm and offer peace to the Contras, combat four-digit inflation, restructure one of the highest per-capita foreign debts in the region and negotiate a large foreign aid package from the U.S.
In 1997, three different figures claimed Ecuador’s presidency, one of them Vice President Rosalía Arteaga, who held the temporary presidency less than a week (Feb. 9-11). When Congress voted to remove then-President Abdalá Bucaram, the latter insisted he had been illegally overthrown. Per the Constitution, Arteaga should have assumed power and called new elections, but Congress decided to name its own leader, Fabián Alarcón, as interim president, thus triggering “the night of the three presidents.” After assuming power via decree, Arteaga chose to resign two days later rather than allowing Congress to remove her from office.
Two years later, Mireya Moscoso was elected president of Panama. During her five-year term, Moscoso, who had lost a 1993 presidential run by a 4% margin, would manage the return of the Panama Canal from the U.S. as well as the fallout from the resignation of her entire cabinet. She would also sign off on Panama’s founding membership in the Central American Integration System (SICA) — still a hallmark political and economic agreement in the region — and ensure Panama a seat in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
Michelle Bachelet first became president of Chile in 2006 before winning a second nonconsecutive mandate from 2014 to 2018 with 62% of votes. Although her two mandates vary largely in context and priorities, both administrations placed a clear emphasis on social issues — everything from education and labor reforms to abortion and civil unions — and the transformation of Chile’s energy matrix, with renewables’ share of the energy supply surging from 5% to more than 20% under her watch.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner governed Argentina from 2007 to 2015. The current vice president of the country was Argentina’s first elected woman president and the first in Latin America to be reelected to a second term (2011). Despite being remembered by some as “the authoritarian populist,” as she herself wrote in her memoirs in 2019, and facing a series of corruption accusations, Kirchner represents a polarized but strong current in favor of the vindication of social rights in Argentina, including those of women.
In 2008, halfway into the mandate of her predecessor, Laura Chinchilla, then vice president of Costa Rica, resigned and announced she would run for president in 2010. After winning by a wide margin, she would go on to usher Costa Rica through its recovery from the global financial crisis, achieving one of the highest and most consistent growth rates in Central America during her tenure (4.4% on average). She managed this alongside one of the most drastic energy transitions in the region (renewables would account for 90% of energy production by the end of her mandate) and the implementation of a “citizen security” strategy that led to significant reductions in both criminality and homicides.
In 2011, Dilma Rousseff became the first woman to hold the presidency of the seventh-largest economy in the world and largest in the region. She committed to a virtuous circle of harnessing oil, boosting the economy and combating extreme poverty. After an average growth of 4.4% from 2004 to 2010, Brazil’s economy slowed abruptly and by the end, Rousseff’s 2011-2016 presidency was mired in the country’s worst recession in more than a century. Though Rousseff had edged out a win in a tight bid for reelection, she was impeached in 2016 due to an alleged violation of the budget law.
At the end of the decade, and as a result of a constitutional crisis, Mercedes Aráoz became acting president of Peru on Sep. 30, 2019. She presented her resignation the following day.
After the resignations of Evo Morales, his vice president and the rest of the officials in the line of succession, Second Vice President of the Senate Jeanine Áñez became interim president of Bolivia on Nov. 12, 2019. She declined to participate in the 2020 electoral process to avoid dividing votes from the opposition and was detained under sedition charges in March 2021 in what many view as political persecution by the current Morales-linked regime. Taken from AQ magazine.
A lack of representation
You are going to have to be specific with which country because each country is different. Which nation are you talking about Robert?
https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-o ... ca-2061416Which ones are you talking about?
Robert did you study the history of each nation enough to make statements like the authoritarian caudillo is the stereotype?
Let us start with naming one nation in Latin America who had something happen politically that
never happened in the USA?
Off the top of my head? Presidents heads being blown off or presidential candidates too? Hmm. Did that happen in the USA? Yes.
Corrupt politicians taking bribes and payoffs and doing illegal things like sending people to break into the political party of oppositions headquarters?
Being assassinated while in office?
Jailing or killing off leaders of movements creating pressure for changes in policy of the sitting status quo government? Who was MLK Jr, Malcolm X and some people arrested with the name of Bobby Seal and Abby Hoffman, Tom Hayden and the Chicago7?
Political prisoners in jail? I know a few Puerto Ricans off the top of my head.
Having civil wars? Enslaving Africans and Indigenous people? How about just massacres of Indians? No that did not happen in the USA.
Banks ripping off average citizens and having a run on banks and stock market crashes? 1929 ring a bell?
Lawlessness and lack of criminal justice system working? Cowboy movies? Clint Eastwood folks?
Torturing prisoners due to being enemies and holding them without due proces or a trial? Due to the patriot Act being passed not having to get warrants for wiretapping or interventions and spying on domestic populations and keeping information on average citizens? Snowden, etc.
Disappearing paperwork and killing people related to national security issues? Hmm. Who could that be?
Organized crime and drug dealers? None of those in the USA. The Godfather is not based on actual Mafia people in the USA. No. No stealing from Jersey airports and illegal liquor sales, drug sales, etc. No American citizen drug dealers or drug runners. No. Those are the Latin Americans. The ones with the genetic predisposition for the drug dealing.
Guns and shootings in the street and in the schools? That happens in the USA doesn't it?
Dead bodies showing up and no one knows why they show up? No, that doesn't happen in the USA.
Politicians taking bribes? From corporations. The thing is that is illegal in Mexico and they got to do it behind closed doors taking risks of being caught. In the USA it is legal. It is called Citizens United SCOTUS case and it is legal to pay politicians to represent your interests. It is called PAC and Super PACs and slush funds and black budgets and lobbyists.
What else happens only in Latin America? And not in the USA?
Aha, I know....military generals plotting to take over the presidency and assassinate or imprison the prez in order to put in a military dude that is friendly to their political point of view.....I think the USA had a overthrow FDR plot in the 1930s. A bunch of far right military and industrialists and politicians did not like the New Deal.....Major General Smedley Butler testified before an investigative committee regarding the plotters.
What else? Growing marijuana? It is legal in a few states. Growing heroine? Less common but oxycotin is a popular drug to consume in Springfield, Ohio....
What else? Prostitution, child porn, etc. That doesn't happen in the USA.
Human trafficking and child labor violations?
Not paying workers overtime? Benefits? Paying less than the minimum wage? No, I am afraid I have evidence that all happens in the USA as well. So what is it that is special about Latin American inferiority exactly Robert? That doesn't have an equal sin in the USA?
You tell me?
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