When the
government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on
private bonds today, it was hardly the first time a country had
defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn't even
the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so
just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural
disasters and a drop in oil prices.
President-elect
Obama's historic triumph was welcomed in Latin America by
left-of-center governments who saw it as a continuation of their own
electoral victories. Even before the election President Lula da Silva
of Brazil said: "Just as Brazil elected a metal worker, Bolivia elected
an Indian, Venezuela elected Chavez and Paraguay a bishop, I think that
it would be an extraordinary thing if, in the largest economy in the
world, a black man were elected president of the United States."
CARACAS - President Hugo Chavez's candidates won a majority of the
governor's elections in Venezuela on Sunday, but opposition forces
could point to gains with victories in several major states as well as
the capital city, Caracas.
Both sides declared victory.
"The
people are telling me, 'Chavez, continue down the same road, the road
of socialism,' " Chavez said early Monday just after the main results
were announced.
Evo Morales knows about "change you can believe in." He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn't want.
Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. He was inaugurated in January 2006. Against tremendous internal opposition, he nationalized Bolivia's natural gas fields, transforming the country's economic stability and, interestingly, enriching the very elite that originally criticized the move.
Reporting from Coca, Ecuador -
Abel Garrido has just struck oil and he's not happy about it.
Using a tree branch, the weathered farmer probed the edge of a
pond that his cattle use for drinking water and soon turned up the
smelly black sludge that he says has killed much of his livestock and
sickened his family.
"I've lost 30 cows," Garrido said. "I cut them open and their insides are black."
Paying the medical bills to treat his three children for skin cancer has cost him his meager savings.
I was pleased to join 12 past presidents and more than 200 members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in signing a
letter to Barack Obama urging him, as president, to respect and support the movements for progressive change in Latin America. We also called on him to dramatically reform U.S. policies toward the region.
Why were we so concerned? For most of the 20th century, the United States was the preponderant power in Latin America; after the end of the Cold War, it was the sole power.
![Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been a vocal critic of US policy in the region. A common refrain from Latin American leaders, with the exception of Colombia - one of the few who stands to lose from a change in US policy - has been that neither the fence nor the billions of dollars spent on counternarcotics has done anything to staunch the US appetite for illegal drugs and cheap labour.[GALLO/GETTY]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/imagecache/article_image_thumb/files/article_images/hugo1111.jpg)
Congratulations on the historic US election result have been rolling in
for president-elect Barack Obama from both friend and foe alike.
There was even a note from Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, who
is better known for insulting the occupant of the White House.
Like many Latin American leaders, he expressed the hope that an
Obama administration would work to improve relations with the region.
BOGOTA - Human rights groups are insisting that the resignation of Colombia's army chief must not stand in the way of an in-depth investigation of the numerous human rights abuses in which he is implicated.
In a statement released Wednesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said General Mario Montoya is implicated in "a number of cases of human rights violations. These allegations must be independently and effectively investigated by the civilian courts, and General Montoya's resignation must not be used as an excuse to bury them."
LA PAZ - Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which has been given three months to leave the country, of "shooting" and "killing" Bolivians during their anti-drug operations.
"The DEA killed, shot at the coca farmers' movement," said Morales, who as well as president still heads the country's cocalero movement, a loose federation of coca growers' unions.
When the
Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz said the great tragedy of Mexico was
that it was so far from God and so close to the United States, the
comment summed up the long and tortured relationship between the
Colossus of the North and Latin America.
Starting with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States has
routinely dictated the hemisphere's political and commercial life and,
on a score of occasions, overthrown governments it found inimical to
its interests.
But the world has suddenly turned upside-down.
