Short Post: What is the real problem in Venezuela and other Latin American countries? - It has nothing to do with “the left” or “the right.”
Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.She is a brave and hard-fighting opposition leader and a worthy winner. But please, do not call this award a “right-wing politician’s battle against a left-wing regime.”
Maduro and his gruesome gang are not a leftist problem.
Branding any such self-serving regime as “left” or “right” does not address the problem. Branding them as left or right entrenches the problem.
Left-wingers can curse the right-wingers, right-wingers can curse the left-wingers, and everybody feels good about themselves. All the while, the can is kicked around, making sure the heart of the matter is not addressed: Irresponsibility.
Peru has had seven presidents from the left, the centre and the right since 2016.
Argentina has experienced one economic crisis after another, with a constant need for international bailouts. That is not a left- or right-wing problem. It is not about whether Kirchner or Milei are in power.
Maduro and Ortega in Nicaragua are left-wing. And they are only looking after themselves, their families and loyalists. As is the case with Trump’s right-wing friends, Bolsonaro in Brazil and Bukele in El Salvador.
What all these mismanaged countries have in common is that nepotism and corruption are the norms. You hire your wife, son or sister. You enrich yourself as much as you can because that is what everybody does.
Add to that a culture of “mañana.” I love Latin America, but sacrificing something today for a better tomorrow is a neglected virtue in this part of the world. Emotions usually run high, rationality and consequential thinking often run low. If you have ever experienced a fireworks party in a “barrio,” you know what I mean.
The people, and especially the poor, deserve so much better, but are also contributing to their own misery, by letting themselves be way too easily swayed by fiery speeches and lofty promises.
So, stop believing that the problem with Latin America’s greedy, short-sighted, or autocratic regimes lies in whether they represent the left or the right—according to your own convictions.
And understand that believing so only contributes to kicking the can of immaturity further down the road.
The problem with politicians in Latin America is their immense irresponsibility, regardless of the ideology or political colour they are dressed in.
Barrio = Neighbourhood.
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Meanwhile, be an adult.
