Carlos Castaneda: Calderon vs. Chavez
Carlos Castaneda had an opinion piece published about Hugo Chavez’s influence in Latin America in the Washington Post last week. He believes that Hugo Chavez’s autocratic politics and reckless economic policies are a bad example for the region, and that his rising influence should be checked. Since George W. Bush has no influence in the region, Castaneda proposes to have Felipe Calderon do this work, as long as Calderon counts with the support from the Bush administration demonstrated by a willingness to work on immigration reform.
This is a bad idea. Mexico has had a historical foreign policy of non-intervention, a policy reached as the result of the many foreign military and political influence that Mexico has suffered through its independent life. The non-intervention has kept foreign affair crisis to a minimum, allowing Mexico to focus their foreign policy with the U.S., as it is needed.
Also, Calderon’s political illegitimacy problems and his support for a failed economic policy further erode any authority that he could have in the region. Topping that would be that the whole hemisphere will think of Mexico as the guard dog of the U.S. when it takes it upon itself to fight American fights.
Chavez’s influence is a symptom of the failure of the "free"-market economic policies to bring prosperity to most of the population. Like Soviet leaders in the 20th century, the modern neo-liberal leaders are constantly predicting abundance if the people are patient enough. People are unhappy after 25 years of promises and having to face a slow worsening of their economic lives.
Chavez saw an opportunity in this discontent and turned it into a strong political weapon in Venezuela, which, thanks to a propitious political and economical environment, he can export it to the rest of Latin America.
How can the U.S. curb Chavez? By adopting policies that actually benefit people in Latin America. If the U.S. used the power that it has used in forcing other countries into adopting U.S. friendly economic policies, then it should be equally easy to force them to adopt policies that would benefit most of the population, such as insist on creating competitive markets when privatizing public companies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Related Diaries:
Nulwee’s Point of Comparison, about Hugo Chavez http://www.dailykos.com/...
Other news:
- 3rd richest man in Mexico. Talking about competitive markets, Carlos Slim, owner of Telefonos de Mexico, TelMex, the formally public Mexican telephone utility, is the third richest man in the word, again, behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He has accumulated this amazing amount of debt by having the good sense of buying a public monopoly and turning it into his own private one. Yes, he charges some of the highest prices in the world, but isn’t that what a company does when it controls the whole market? The invisible hand taketh from the people and puts it into Slim’s accounts.
http://www.forbes.com/...
- Carlos Slim, on charity and U.S. medical care. Feudal lord over the telephone monopoly in Mexico strongly disapproves of Gates and Buffet’s focus on charity.
"Poverty isn't solved with donations," he said at the unveiling of his own health care initiative. Slim continued that building good businesses do more for society than "going around like Santa Claus."
Slim also wants to help us reign American medical costs by proposing shipping Medicare patients to Mexico receive some fine medical care from the hospitals that he will build on the U.S. border. Wouldn’t it be great to put your life on the hands of such a warm, compassionate man?
http://www.nypost.com/...
- Calderon’s nonsensespeak and curbing immigration. Calderon wants to 'desmigratizar' illegal immigration when dealing with the U.S. It is not clear what they want to focus on. Calderon wants to curb immigration through foreign investment and better social programs. Quote:
"In marginalized communities, after paying for the basic costs of education, health care and food, people are left with nothing, and they're forced to migrate," Landero Gutiérrez said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
- Calderon met with Bush on Tuesday, March 13. Although Calderon is 'desmigratizar' the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, the main topic of discussion was immigration. Bush pledge to expand the current guest worker program which...
http://www.iht.com/...
Related diaries:
milesce’s secure borders with kindness: http://www.dailykos.com/...
davidseth’s Distraction: Bush visits Latin America http://www.dailykos.com/...
Bcgntn’s "Devil Bush Mired in Details..." Bush in Guatemala http://www.dailykos.com/...
- Close to slavery. The Southern Poverty Law Center says that the guest worker programs are, "Close to Slavery." Legal H-2 Mexican guest workers to the U.S. enjoy low-wages, high risk, no health coverage and squalid living conditions. Oh, and their employer has total power on them since they can decide if they should be deported. Quote:
"Guestworkers are usually poor people who are lured here by the promise of decent jobs," Bauer said. "But all too often, their dreams are based on lies, their hopes shattered by the reality of a system that treats them as commodities. They're the disposable workers of the global economy."
http://www.splcenter.org/...
Related diaries:
roxnev’ s "field of panties", about sexual abuse female against farmworkers http://www.dailykos.com/...
- New Mexican securities I need help from economical savy members. What does this means and what repercusion can this have in Mexico, either positive or negative? I am including it because once upon a time, I didn’t understand tesobonos. 10 years later, I read that they were a crucial piece on the December Mistake of 1994. I have learned my lesson :)
"March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico plans to sell securities that will allow investors to swap bonds denominated in foreign currencies for peso debt, part of a push to make the country's finances less vulnerable to declines in the currency.
Investors who buy the Mexican warrants will be able to exchange bonds in dollars, euros, German marks and Italian liras that are due between 2008 and 2033 for peso-denominated bonds maturing in 2014 and 2024, according to investors who received the terms of the proposal."
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
Remember, this is an open thread on Latin America. Feel free to start discussing anything you wish.