…reality to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez.

“If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income, there is nothing to invest more in nutrition, health and education, which are the most powerful weapons for reducing poverty,” the Peruvian president said.

What a beautiful grasp on how the world works! Why don’t honorable, intelligent, and yes, indigenous, Latin American leaders get more attention in the West for their clear grip on reality? Hugo Chavez gets all the press he wants when he pops off, and well, no objection here, people ought to know what he’s saying. But good presidents like President Toledo of Peru get totally ignored. He is one of the finest leaders on the continent and yet totally invisible in the West. He’s a marvellous voice for common sense and, being a former shoe shine boy, he knows very well how the real world operates. Look at the simple, intelligent brilliance of what he says. It’s astonishing that no one ever hears this.

Read the rest here.

And for a lovely essay on what kind of person President Toledo is, read Ruben Navarrette’s fine piece on Real Clear Politics here.

After talking to Toledo, Navarrette concludes:

It’s not about right or left. It’s about what works and what doesn’t. Toledo put his country on the road to economic prosperity. Chavez put his on the road to ruin.