Mary Anastasia O’Grady
11/23/2009
A dictatorship that fosters the production and distribution of cocaine is not apt to enjoy a positive international image. But when that same government cloaks itself in the language of social justice and emphasizes the enfranchisement of indigenous people, it wins world-wide acclaim. This is the case in Bolivia, where O’Grady says elections scheduled for December 6 will mark the official end of its democracy. While the US and the OAS obsess over Honduras’s legal removal of an undemocratic president, Bolivia’s President Morales has fortified his narco-dictatorship. O’Grady traces Morales’ rise and performance in office, stating that South America’s latest dictator is not the ideological communist that many fear. Akin to a mob boss, he rose to power by protecting the coca business and is now set to oversee the end of Bolivian democracy.
O’Grady writes ‘The Americas’ for the Journal.
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Opinion summaries provided by Opinion Source, an organization with which Safe Democracy is associated
Six months of Obama’s mandate have gone by and the beginning of his ever so mentioned “change” is starting to come to life. Apart from the expressive warm feelings between Obama and Hugo Chavez- the photograph which depicts Obama’s hand outstretched firmly to hold Chavez’s, a strong statement of the fact that Venezuela no longer poses a threat to the U.S- there are basically three main events which give us the magnitude of this change. 
The sacred memory of the lost ones and the country’s dignity itself force Argentina’s society to insist fighting for the justice which was not served at this horrid event of the AMIA massacre.The effort and work employed by the family members and organizations surrounding them, such as AMIA and DAIA, have expressed the extent at which the courage and determination continues to eventually achieve this justice. 
The Venezuelan model shows signs of economic exhaustion and lack of functionality. The repression intesifies. 
Fernández de Kirchner must put aside the diplomatic arrogance full of grand proclamations and responsibly face up to a foreign policy in which the results coincide with Argentina’s strategic guidelines. A preliminary assessment of her performance leaves big question marks and a feeling of deception. 
Within a democracy, one cannot give any type of legitimacy to a coup d’etat. For Latin America, this coup in Honduras serves as proof of the extent at which it troubles this region to accept that democracy can only work within boundaries and through laws
There are two types of “left” in Latin America today: the new, updated left with strong social-democratic undertones, which is aiming for a welfare state and an economy with a human element to it, and the one of radical inspiration that acts through personalism, authoritarianism and the control of public powers. 
Brazil has technically entered a so-called recession. How then, can we explain the fact that Sao Paolo’s stock market (Bovespa) – which was at 30 thousand in December of 2008 – has not stopped rising, and has reached 50 thousand.
A narrow economist point of view has devalued the possibilities of volunteerism. It’s time to get over this once and for all. Obama’s example, banking on volunteerism in the midst of the American economy’s biggest crisis in eighty years, is more than suggestive.
