Economic lessons from the left governments in Latin America – and a comparison to China
Recent events in Latin America entirely refute the claim in the Western media that the right wing was carrying all before it in the continent.
Ecuador
First they came for Lula and Kirchner, now it’s Correa
On 3 July the National Court of Justice of Ecuador ordered the preventive detention of the country’s former President Rafeal Correa and requested that he is extradited from Belgium where he is currently living.
US offensive against the left in Latin America
US-aligned right wing forces have been advancing in Latin America over the past three years. They have capitalised on the political instability created by an economic crisis which has engulfed the region following the crash in commodity prices in 2014. Their agenda is to reverse the huge social gains delivered by socialist and left wing governments throughout Latin America since the turn of the century and subordinate the region’s governments to US policy.
The left is fighting back in Ecuador
Recent gains by the Latin American right are marked by two important features: a shift back to the old neoliberal economic model and an authoritarian turn.
In Brazil, President Michel Temer has pursued free-market policies after coming to power following a parliamentary coup which forced out leftist Dilma Rousseff.
Right-wing inciting a coup in Ecuador
There have now been violent right-wing protests in Ecuador for several weeks, calling for the ousting of the elected President, Rafael Correa.
The US-linked opposition has now released a new video that openly incites the police to engage in a coup, as previously happened in 2010 when five people were killed and the President was kidnapped. The video can be seen here.
Eight years of progressive politics in Ecuador
The following article by Matt Willgress was originally published by the Morning Star. It sets out some of Correa’s achievements since he was first elected President, including poverty reduction, low unemployment and an economy growing at four per cent a year – all underpinned by a huge increase in state investment, whose proportion of GDP has trebled in eight years.
Eight years ago President Rafael Correa was elected in Ecuador and, as in many Latin American countries in recent years, there’s been a tremendous shift in the country.