Breaking! Venezuela More Popular than GOP

Thanks to this breakdown of a recent CNN poll, we can confirm that according to the citizens of the USA themselves, Venezuela is a more wonderful thing than the Republican Party. Here's the chart:

Goddam commie Ted Turner.........

He must have been thirsty

Check the video out on this link, showing how President Twobreakfasts was greeted at a political event in Lima's Plaza de Acho yesterday (the city's bullring).

Maybe the crowd thought that he was feeling a little thirsty...I mean, what other reason might there have been for throwing dozens of plastic drinks bottles filled with liquids at his motorcade?

Meanwhile in his speech, García made a direct reference to the anti-freedom of speech legislation he's trying to push through congress. In praise of Peru's faithful assembled, he said:

"...these (local business leaders) are the real anonymous heroes. This is the true civic society that doesn't have salaries in dollars, nor is it a NGO that gets money from foreign embassies."

The man is showing his true colours. You guys up there fear for freedom of speech in Venezuela, but you're looking in the wrong place. The dude gets bottles thrown at his ass and still thinks he's the voice of the people? This is going to finish badly.

Twobreakfasts: a nasty piece of work

President Twobreakfasts gave an interview to Peru's El Comercio daily this week as part of the general fanfare for the APEC conference. The local media all picked up on Alan saying he'd like to be President for a third time in 2016 (he can't run again in 2011), but Jurgen Schuldt over at memorias de gregorio samsa* has an altogether keener eye for a quote.

Schuldt spotted this one before I saw it mentioned anywhere else, and it really does sum up just how arrogant, mediocre and even dangerous Peru's Prez truly is. The subject was how Peruvians are never happy (Alan had already blamed his low approval rating on this...how convenient). The example was the large port facility being built at present in Callao, just North of Lima. The talk was how the people of Peru will find any excuse to complain about the development (the fact that Chilean money is building the port and not capital from Peru grates amongst the population). Under the scalpel of the OttoTrans Alan said:

"There is a lot of doubletalk. Peru has to free itself of these complainers and the best it could do is put all these people that speak through bitterness, envy or personal frustration in a boat and set it sailing and lose them (forever)."

That's Twobreakfasts down to a tee. He has no idea how much damage his lying and deception is causing his country, and anyone who stands up to his arrogance should be disappeared. And here lies a point that the reader unversed with LatAm culture and psyche often misses, but live here for a while and that soon changes.

The idea of "losing someone" in the way Alan theorizes is not just a metaphor in Latin America, dear reader. The word "desaparecido" (disappeared) is feared and reviled from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego, and anyone with even a rough sense of regional modern history knows that it's no laughing matter. Speak to the family of a disappeared and you'll never laugh about it again, I assure you. No matter where, no matter if the regime were left, right, centre, revolutionary, military or (proclaiming to be) democratic. Chile, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and all the et ceteras.

But Alan García, the man who dragged Peru into the depths of economic and social chaos in the 1980s, still dreams of "losing" anyone that opposes him. The man is a danger to society, make no mistake. Under all that neoliberal, investor-friendly image that sits so well with the industrialized nations there's a really nasty piece of work. The English media sometimes muses about the apparent paradox of a country with great economic numbers having the President with the lowest regional approval rating (right now, measured at 19%....and remember 15% of those are the die-hard APRA party faithful who'd approve of Pol-Pot if he were the head of their organization). Those 'regional experts' that puzzle over this paradox don't know what they are talking about. Very simple.

The basic premise that world opinion is a better judge of a Peruvian president than the Peruvian people themselves is bordering on an insult. Think about it this way and ask yourself a couple of logical questions:

• What would Alan's approval rating be if the country hadn't been lucky to enjoy the high metals prices over the last two years?

• Have you noticed that those metals prices have recently dried up?

• How will Twobreakfasts react when his back is up against the wall economically?

His track record is not good on that last score. I'd also point out that for the first time since Alan himself opened the door to the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) terrorists, those extremists are making headlines by killing police and army personnel. This is an ugly development that Alan brushes under the carpet with the catch-all excuse of "they're narcotraffickers". But is it really some strange coincidence of timing that the abhorrent scum of Sendero begin to make their presence felt with Alan's second term?

The 19% approval rating isn't some statistical fluke. Vox populi dixit. Are you listening?

*after a year traipsing around the blogosphere, I still think this is the best name for a blog I've found

Message to Colombia: Time to grow up

A couple of Colombia stories have caught my eye in the last 24 hours. Firstly, this link shows that President Uribe's approval rating has dropped seven points from the boost he got from the hostage-freeing 'Operacion Jaque', and currently sits at 78%. Not that Uribe will be quaking in his boots about the loss of popularity; 78% is an extremely impressive approval rating for a long-serving President in any part of the world, and perhaps doubly so for LatAm.

The second was a call by the once and future presidential candidate, ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt, to include the FARC in Colombian political debate (Spanish language Reuters link here). Now I'm sure this will be greeted by cries of "never surrender", "bomb the bastards", "string 'em up it's the only language they understand" and suchlike, but isn't it time that Colombians stopped beating the crap out of each other and talked a bit more?

The FARC are (to my knowledge at least) the only belligerant guerrilla force left in this part of the world, and the continuing outbreak of regional democracy will have to include them at some point, just as Sinn Fein is now (grudgingly by some) included in the Irish debate after years of bombs and guns. Of course, Betancourt obviously has her eye on the top job already thus keep in mind there's always the scheming politico angle to filter out. Even so, I welcome her statement, even though it won't be a night-to-day changemaker. In the words of the warrior-democrat Winston Churchill, "Jaw jaw is better than war war."

The aggressive stance taken by Uribe towards the FARC has undoubtedly worked on one level, and this explains the roots of his current popularity. But it has also caused innumerable human rights violations that will have to be reckoned sooner or later. Argentina has come to terms with its past. Peru is having more trouble facing the stark reality of its armed forces atrocities in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has made progress. As for Colombia, the day will come when a warrior leader such as Uribe is not needed nor wanted any more. The sooner the better.