Setbacks in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina. The Future of the Left in South America
Global Research News Hour Episode 132
“The left governments began to fall between two chairs. They weren’t able to revive, they weren’t interested in reviving a mass movement. On the other hand they had lost significant support among their middle class and lower middle class and even popular support put off by the corruption and the long kind of arrogance of power.” –Professor James Petras, in this weeks interview.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Length (59:04)
Click to Download audio (MP3 Format)
In December, hard right-wing leader Mauricio Macri takes power in Argentina after more than a decade of centre- left rule in the country.
The same month, the Right wing Democratic Unity Roundtable party defeated Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, founded by the late popular Bolivarian leader Hugo Chavez.
Brazil’s Workers party under President Dilma Rousseff is struggling in the midst of a recession and corruption charges. And just this last week, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, lost a referendum bid that would have allowed him to run for office for a fourth consecutive term.
All over South America, it seems that the left of centre political parties are losing their popular appeal.
Do these developments signal the left’s fall from grace as a recent Economist article put it? What do they mean for the socially progressive gains made over the last decade?
This week’s Global Research News Hour focuses on South American politics, particularly the gains and losses of the Left of Centre political parties and movements.
In the first interview, prominent commentator, and award-winning author, Professor James Petras outlines the background that led to this situation and the efforts needed moving forward to preserve the gains of the left.
A Bolivian activist, Sara Paulina Jauregui, joins us next to talk about why many Bolivians rejected the constitutional changes championed in a recent referendum.
The show concludes with a return appearance by John Ahniwanika Schertow, editor and founder of Intercontinental Cry. He talks about the ways these leftist governments have failed Indigenous peoples, even comparing the Morales Government at one point to the government of former Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Length (59:04)
Click to Download audio (MP3 Format)
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