On Thursday May 28th the United Nations Envoy to Chile Heraldo Munoz visited LaGuardia. He talked about Chile under Pinochet from 1973-1990. Under Pinochet Chile was a brutal regime that crushes every mean to not let the seeds of democracy to spout. This was the trend of Latin of America after World War II. Nations like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay where junta governments.
Now you may wonder what America have to with all of this. It was the Kennedy administration that tired to overthrew Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1962. The CIA under Nixon in 1973 put Augusto Pinochet into power via the coup that overthrew the first democracy elected Marist Salvador Allende. At that time America was afraid that Latin America will adopt Communistic ideals and crush the Western ideals of democracy. After all we were in the Cold War with Russia. Having a red Latin America would not work for America at that time.
Over the last twenty years there have been great breakthroughs in Latin America. During the Regan administration he supported Aylwin idea to bring democracy back to Chile. In 1990 Chile elected Patricio Aylwin the first democratic elected in Chile since Pinochet. In 2006 Bolivia elected Evo Morales the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Also in that same year Argentina elected Christina Kirchner. She is only the second lady president of Argentina. This is same nation that brought us Evita Peron. The nation that tortured her father, put her family in exile under Pinochet and would become Chile’s first lady president in 2006. Her name is Michelle Bachelet.
The United States of America under Barack Obama can strengthen our relationships with Latin America. Yes I know American intervention led into many coups. The people of Latin America love the American people and what our nation stands for. Under Obama he will strengthen ties with our friends and have better relationships with Raul Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. America. We can learn a lot from each other. That’s change we can all believe in.
For more information on these leaders log on to these websites:
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the President of Brazil on Charlie Rose in 2007: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/8711
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with Fareed Zakaria in 2009: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/03/29/gps.president.lula.interview.cnn?iref=videosearch
Michelle Bachelet of Chile at USC Berkeley in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48aWu8GBKyQ
Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua with David Frost in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrGJDwtXBlc
Felipe Calderón of Mexico with Andrea Mitchell in 2009: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#30234342 Evo Morales of Bolivia with Amy Goodman in 2008: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/18/an_hour_with_bolivian_president_evo
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