…that have implications for revolutionary change in 2005. From Latin America, here’s my personal list of the most revolutionary stories in the hemisphere:
1. CAFTA – Toughest legislative battle of the year in the U.S. and the most important one. Free trade with the tiny nations of Central America has become a reality. And free trade lifts businesses across the board. Even Contra Cafe! No more will Hugo Chavez be free to subvert the hemisphere with his pork-barrel spending programs that create dependency. Instead, every nation will stand up for itself and all of its earnings will be purely their own, no strings attached. The harsh battle for passage and the incredible hard-won victory will assure Central America’s success for years to come.
2. Summit of the Americas – George Bush was dealt a bad hand of cards, got a clown show of odious Seattle-style protestors shoved in his face, seemed to lose on all fronts. Except that he didn’t. He went head to head with Hugo Chavez on free trade, giving him the fight he was spoiling for – and won. Hugo Chavez found himself internationally isolated after this one, shouting into the breeze that Mexico’s Vicente Fox was a ‘cachorro.’
3. Emergence of Cuban Civil Society – A stunning development. Deep inside Castro’s island hellhole, Cuba’s democrats unexpectedly came out and met, exactly as Adams and Jefferson and all the U.S. founding fathers had done years before them. Like them, they did so at great risk. Their message will reverberate for centuries to come.
4. Venezuela’s Ruined Election – Behind the pretense of democracy and the apparent normalcy of the country, Venezuela harbors a brutal leftist tyrant intent on destroying all civil liberties and economic freedoms. Hugo Chavez is attempting to set up a Castro-controlled Cuban dictatorship while claiming it’s all democratic. Venezuela’s opposition, in a rare show of unity, came to the agreement that they would not allow themselves to be used this way. It was a risky move but their only means of communicating to the world that this was not a democracy.
5. Election of Evo Morales in Bolivia – Morales caused trouble all year long, toppling President Mesa and setting up roadblocks to starve cities into submission. Now, he’s been elected president of Bolivia, surely a tiger to ride, given that there are people out there who are even more radical than he is. Still, the silver lining is this: it was done as a real democracy, with a very un-Venezuelan-like fairness, swiftness and legitimacy. Maybe this will in the end assure that this does not amount to a total disaster.
6. Washington Embraces Venezuela’s Democrats – Everyone was stunned when President Bush sought to meet Maria Corina Machado. She was in town to ask congressmen to please not turn their heads to the depredations of Hugo Chavez just because Chavez did not like Bush. She was urging them to support democracy in Venezuela. Bush and Condi Rice knew of her work and asked to meet her, sending a strong message to Hugo Chavez, just through a single photograph without words, that the U.S. is watching Chavez’s destruction of democracy in Venezuela and had no intention of being fooled.
7. Colombia Rises – Every economic indicator out of this country glows. Everything from inflation to GDP to producer prices to strengthening currency has exceeeded expectations. No other South American nation is arcing upward the way this one has. And the hearts and minds of the people are changing, after 40 years of pariahhood, they suddenly realize how great it is to be Colombian and how much they have to be proud of. It’s a real revolution.
8. Indictments Of Pinochet and Fujimori – Is it political or is it really about accountability? Chile is hard to read, because it is a left-leaning government prosecuting a rightwing ex-dictator and not a leftwing terrorist. Still, accountability is important and if this creates progress in strengthening institutions, rather than sets off a cycle of recriminations when some rightwing government takes the helm, it will be worth it.
9. Washington Prepares for Trouble from Paraguay – The president of Paraguay sought help and the White House received him, unlike many other heads of state. Donald Rumsfeld also came there to hear him out. There are regional predators in our hemisphere and Paraguay sought to defend itself so that its weak democracy can have a fighting chance to flourish and grow.
10. Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rises in the polls – Mexico is preparing for a presidential election in mid-2006. Rising in the polls – at least until recently, is AMLO, a leftist who’s taken money from Hugo Chavez. That said, Mexico’s institutions are much stronger than those of most Latin American nations so the race is on to keep him moderate instead of a problem.