Latin America goes to the left

With a choice Gustavo Petro as president Colombia, Latin America reaches a total of eight rulers of the “so-called” left, who arrive more as an alternative to centrist and right-wing governments that have failed to respond to the great needs of most of their countries than as a viable alternative with development programs that can provide a higher standard of living for their populations .

In general, the rulers of the new left have been chosen for delivering a list of promises, very well rehearsed by their protagonists, who manage to seduce their audience from the stage by presenting the problems of each of these countries in an extremely dramatic and penetrating way. way: high levels of corruption, violence and delinquency, attacks on democracy, terrible income distribution, large regional disparities, overexploitation of labor, gender discrimination, deficient pension systems, etc., although they never present the antidotes they will use to their decisions. .

Unfortunately, in most cases, the majority of these countries’ electorates are marginalized with high levels of illiteracy and/or exclusion, so they are unlikely to have the necessary judgment to scrutinize the viability of these promises. but nevertheless, in the midst of the euphoria of the claims, they are urged, without further question, to compromise their vote before accumulating the promised illusions. Perhaps this is one of the biggest shortcomings of democratic systems in countries where ignorance prevails.

The common denominator of these new governments is that they start with great ideas of social justice, but, unfortunately, with few concrete projects and programs to solve the problems that arise, not to mention a comprehensive strategy to solve them.

Thus, if various government programs are newly elected leftist presidents such as Fernandez of Argentina, Castillo of Peru, Boric of Chile and Petro of Colombia In general, very similar proposals are observed, such as the eradication of poverty, inequality and corruption, concern for environmental issues, gender, etc., with exceptions in very local issues, such as the need to achieve peace with guerrilla groups and the application of a new state policies to protect the rights of indigenous, black and marginalized people in Colombia, support the Mapuche in Chile or the most vulnerable groups in Peru through agrarian reform and improved health and education systems, etc.

Perhaps an aspect little taken into account within the grand goals of the new left governments is the aspect related to the economic strategy that achieves the goals of improvement in matters of income distribution and welfare of the population, etc. In general, they talk about fiscal reforms, restructuring spending to create social development programs through which they achieve greater political clientelization, etc., but what is not mentioned is the economic project that makes this possible. fulfill election promises.

It would be desirable if the economic strategies corresponding to the reforms to be carried out were set out in their initial state programs. How more wealth will be generated, which sectors will be promoted, which regions, sources of funding for these programs, what will be the role of national capital and foreign investment in the strategy, with which countries alliances will be formed to facilitate the flow of investment and marketing of developed products, etc.

Despite the semi-progressive left leanings of some of the new Latin American leaders, they continue to overlook important issues such as the above. Perhaps this is the Achilles heel of many of these governments, which, faced with the impossibility of fulfilling their development promises due to a lack of resources and adequate conditions, find it necessary to abandon their democratic principles, turning them towards radical authoritarianism, which only causes discontent and uncertainty of the future. for their countries, because the cases of Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua.

FROM AGUSTINA GARCIA VILLA

ECONOMIC ANALYST

MAAZ