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Editor's Note: Geovanny Vicente Romero is a lawyer and political scientist, with experience as a professor and advisor of public policy and governance. He is a political strategist and government communication consultant. He is currently completing a master's degree in Political Communication and Governance at George Washington University. He is the founder of the Center for Public Policy, Development and Leadership RD (CPDL-RD).
(CNN Spanish) - The title of this article not only refers to a political apology about events in two regions of the world, it also coincides perfectly with the climatic conditions experienced by most of the countries that occupy us on this occasion. Latin American nations located in the southern hemisphere - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, among others - are enjoying spring, a season that begins for them on September 1 and ends on November 30.
This climatic stage of the south, is coinciding with another type of spring that projects a resurgence, a citizen rebirth. In this case, as a simile we see spring representing "youth" and as an antithesis we would have autumn representing "old age" or "sunset" of a model or system. Something similar happened in the Middle East when in 2010 they initiated anti-government protests that resulted in the overthrow of several, as is the case of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011) who for many years ruled Tunisia; or Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011) who was a "de facto" pharaoh in Egypt.
Latin America also has its own way of shaking off the old models and availing themselves of the hope of renewal. Next, we will briefly analyze some of the main events that define the political landscape of the region:
Bolivia
These days I told the journalist Begoña Sevilla that it is a great concern for Latin American democracy that the results of the Bolivian elections are not confirmed beyond reasonable doubt. I pointed out that from my experience as an international election observer, I could say that “the change was surprising in the voting trend, which could be seen in the transmission of preliminary results after the closing of the process. They left us with more doubts than certainties and this causes an increase in the loss of confidence in the results. ”
Henry Kissinger said that "power is the strongest aphrodisiac" and I think that after 15 years in power, Evo Morales continues to be addicted to this aphrodisiac that for some is uncontrollable. However, on the other hand, I remember Lao Tsé's famous phrase when he pointed out that “whoever conquers others is strong; but whoever conquers himself is powerful, ”and that is precisely what I think the powerful people of Bolivia will do, will follow the motivation of their neighbors - Chile, Ecuador and Peru - and will conquer themselves in the streets if the authorities do not They are able to respect what was their will at the polls.
Chile
Chile is a very interesting case. For many years we were taught that Chile was our north as a region, our role model. This discourse always came from international financial organizations, from charts and tables of growth and poverty reduction, as well as from learned economists. Chile was sold to us as the economic miracle of a nation that we should all emulate. However, we forget the most important thing: people. We forget to ask the people who lived that 'idyllic reality', we forget to go to the source since people are not numbers or figures and only through the well-being of ordinary citizens can you measure the success of a public policy .
I remember that a while ago I was talking with a friend, Karen Morales-Chacana, a Chilean actress established in the city of Washington, who has founded a bilingual theater called Teatro La Bolsa where stories are told. That day, I marveled at the progress of Chile, I cited achievements that the southern nation had achieved in recent decades. She, without thinking twice, in a pedagogical way dismantled all the myths that I brought and recognized those who obeyed the truth. Last week, after almost two years of that conversation, I meet her at the end of a play at the Teatro de La Luna, also located in the capital. On this occasion, like that mother who takes pleasure in pronouncing the lapidary and emblematic phrase of "I told you so," she reminded me of that conversation. The chaos experienced by the Chilean government has led him to cancel the APEC summit and # COP25 on climate change. Yes, we are talking about the country with one of the strongest democracies in Latin America.
All this brought to mind a visit that former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos made to the Dominican Republic in 2009. At his conference, Lagos pointed out that the great challenge of Latin American countries was the redistribution of wealth with economic growth. How much truth in that thought! Already at that time Lagos was a former president. It is a monumental waste that presidents can see problems more clearly when they leave the post. Why is this last?
That statement of Lagos in 2009, acquires greater validity in 2019 that lives its own country, because it is useless to have a sustained economic growth if it is not reflected in the pockets of the ordinary citizen. Latin America continues without doing "the task", so it remains the most unequal region in the world.
Ecuador
As it happened in Chile where President Sebastián had to cancel the rise in the Chilean subway ticket, in Ecuador Lenín Moreno had to leave without effect a decree that imposed economic measures that were unpopular since the decree was published. What happened? The town said 'enough is enough' and threw itself into the streets. Ecuador is a country that went from the left of Rafael Correa, to the center of Lenín Moreno. That ideological change was not easy, in fact it was abrupt and unexpected since both leaders were of the same current. The result is an atrocious level of social polarization in which Correa cannot approach Ecuador and Lenin does not know if he will have the resistance to end his period.
The different crises that the country has experienced in recent years, going from the Odebrecht case to the recent protests, create the breeding ground for these two leaders to live by blaming everything and with this the divided country. From my point of view, in the last crisis the government learned that the changes that affect the population must be discussed with the population. This was not possible until the indigenous movement rose and despite the resistance it encountered, it behaved with the height demanded by the circumstances and endured until the end. In this battle the result was the withdrawal of the government.
Haiti
The Caribbean nation continues to be a victim of the "favorite game" that the international community and the editorial lines of many media both use. We cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in Haiti. According to the United Nations, 42 people have died in just 7 weeks of protests. Of this figure, 19 died at the hands of the security forces. It should be noted that before the Chilean people took to the streets to protest, and the Ecuadorian citizenship - including the indigenous - in a blunt way had said NO to the country's economic measures.
Before the events in Chile and Ecuador, a large part of the Peruvian population had come out to support the dissolution of the congress as a way to "reset" the rules of the Peruvian democracy game. What few people know is that before all these social events of social manifestation, Haiti had already come out to demand the cessation of corruption at the beginning of the year, continuing the same paradigm change claim during the following months and currently takes 7 weeks asking for the resignation of its president. As I said before, we can't keep playing favorites.
In March 2019, when the three emergency situations that the region had were in Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, I pointed out these three cases, that “we continue to press harder in Venezuela, without taking our eyes off Nicaragua and above all without forgetting the Haitian brothers, who carry their own cross. ”Democracy has not improved in these three countries, with the novelty that the south begins to stir in a citizen awakening. This disinterest in the fate of Haiti that I mentioned, was one of the conclusions we reached during a dialogue we had with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, in which we reviewed the democracy of Latin America in April past. Since that date, we have made little progress.
Peru
Democracy is not the only political system in the world but it is certainly the one that works best. Democracy does not mean governing without political opposition. In fact, in democracy the majority must know that someday it can become a minority. Therefore, the political opposition strengthens democracy and reduces the chances of a dictatorship. But what happens when the opposition is politically irrationally exaggerated? Like dictatorships, it hinders the proper functioning of institutions and compromises governance because opposition is no longer exercised to improve things, in their "House of Cards" they oppose opposing everything that moves in the air. Vizcarra, who had ruled out seeking reelection, decided to dissolve Congress and advance the elections. A large part of the population came out to support this decision. We should learn something from this.
Latin America needs more political opposition, more voices ringing and more legs moving. This opposition must be rational, meaningful and well intentioned. In fact, there are those who argue that when a democracy has no opposition, it must create it. Genuine and well-intentioned opposition must be distinguished from the status quo and represent the opposite of what it criticizes and governments must respect it and guarantee their right to every state of cause. Long live democracy!
Protests in Chile