BY YOSHI JOHNSON

In print | December 6, 2007

Big things are afoot lately in the societies that we “Americans” like to forget are part of America proper, too. In the past few years, Central and South American countries have been experiencing small, but significant revolutions of an electoral-democratic variety. Ostensibly reacting to the persistence of economic and social ills, as well as U.S. influence in the hemisphere, these Latin American societies are experiencing a self-conscious lurch towards the political left. While recent developments in Peru, Mexico and Colombia suggest that the region’s trajectory will not be consistently uni-directional, a discernible break from the political status quo in favor of fresh and sometimes novel political approaches is certainly underway.

Most recently, this past Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez asked his people to approve significant new reforms to the country’s constitution. He proposed some 70 changes, the most significant of which were eliminating the limit on the number of terms a president can serve, creating certain communal forms of property, ending the central bank’s autonomy, altering the administrative and territorial structures of the country and instituting several labor-related policies.

What did his people give him for an answer? To the world’s surprise, they gave him a resounding “No!” Sure, given that the measure was only narrowly defeated, it wasn’t exactly “resounding” in a conventional sense, but for a politician accustomed to landslide electoral victories, the rejection of the referendum was an irrefutably meaningful defeat.

Since it is alleged that even many Chavez supporters rejected the reforms, either through voting or through abstention, to what were Venezuelans responding? Experts believe that the proposals were just too much too soon; more specifically, most Venezuelans, Chavistas included, were not prepared to entrust so much power to one person. On these grounds, I think that the people’s answer was the right one. The value of strong democratic tradition, it seems, has not been lost on Venezuelans, even after several years under a highly reform-oriented ruler such as Chavez.

I am, on the other hand, curious as to whether other reforms might yet be implemented, such as the proposed establishment of a pension fund for laborers in the informal sectors of the economy. On some level, I am tentatively hoping that at least some of the more socially democratic measures find their way back on future ballots. Given that such measures alone would most certainly pass, I would like to see just how successfully Chavez could implement and manage redistributive programs like this pension fund.

You see, the endeavors in this vein are what amount to small but significant revolutions. They represent part of that self-conscious shift towards the left that I mentioned earlier, alternatively viewed as a sort of pro-democratic revision to a very historically anti-democratic, neo-liberal project. Free and open markets, fiscal austerity and privatization have not significantly alleviated rampant inequality and poverty in many Latin American societies - indeed, this historical reality persists today - and so disillusionment with the Washington-backed neoliberal agenda has driven them in search of other political and economic solutions.

Am I saying that Chavez and his policies are just such a solution? Hardly. On the political front, Chavez has moved to curtail freedom of expression in some troubling ways. (Although to be clear, Venezuela is still characterized as having a robust and vocal political opposition movement, one that controls much of the media there.) He also seems to have become preoccupied with the country’s poor; not so much for their own sake, but more for the sake of maintaining and increasing his own power.

On the economic front, meanwhile, the capitalist machine is alive and clipping along in Venezuela, despite Chavez’s attempts to dress it in the trappings of socialist revolution. In fact, Venezuela’s rich are only getting richer, while the poor have arguably benefited only marginally under Chavez’s policies.

On the other hand, what first began in Venezuela as a populist reaction to persistent ills there has spread to the rest of the region. A populist meme, as only politics of the Latin American variety can sustain, has been promulgated throughout the hemisphere: growth and progress, yes, but above all else, democracy and equity. In this sense, there’s still something to be said for Hugo’s shenanigans.

Chavez’s antics also embolden the more pragmatically minded (and less dramatically inclined) reformist leaders of the region to enact incremental but significant change without fear of rebuke from the U.S. In countries like Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Nicaragua, governments have cautiously explored alternatives to the neoliberal project, variations on the one-size-fits-all “Washington consensus” which are more adequately tailored to the historical context of their countries and the needs of their peoples. Increasingly, Latin American governments are shaking free of the constraints of a U.S.-devised neo-liberal vision so that they can re-envision their societies on their own terms and with reinvigorated mandates from their people.

All in all, I guess I’m trying to say that I find the rumblings down south rather exciting. Chavez: sure, he’s not all that, but the broader political undercurrent he and other Latin American leaders represent is something we would all do well to note. Perhaps the only other region from which we’re seeing mounted such a potentially significant resistance to the U.S.-backed neoliberal agenda is East Asia. The Chinese brand of economic plan and vision, however, represents a very different movement, one bereft of ideals like equity and equality, and one that is taking place against a decidedly less democratic backdrop than the foment in Latin American countries. For the next decade, I’ll have my eyes cast anxiously in the direction of Venezuela and Brazil down south for the stirrings of quiet revolutions.

Yoshi is a senior. You can reach him at ajohnso1@swarthmore.edu.

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