The goose-stepping soldiers have long returned to theirbarracks and many of the generals who commanded them have died or beensentenced for crimes against humanity. Yet, some three decades after the fallof the military dictatorships that once terrorised Latin America, democracy inthe region is once again under attack. This time, the strongmen are populistelected leaders, who ” under a veneer of constitutionality ” concentrate powerin their own hands, marginalise opponents and use public resources to stackelectoral races in their favor.
The main proponents today, rights groups and academics say,are Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales andNicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. “They have a strong personality and a bullyingstyle,” Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch’s Latin America director said.“They go after critics, opponents and others who get in the way of theirpolitical agenda, whether it is the judiciary, the media or civilsociety." “And the practice is to use the whole power of the state,"he added. "There’s no torture or killing but the name of the game isintimidation and, in some cases, closing down criticism and opposition.”
Peter Smith, a Latin America politics expert at theUniversity of California, San Diego, added: “The process of democratisation hasstagnated, reached a peak or may well be backsliding as a whole in the region.”Daniel Montalvo, a politics professor at Quito’s San Francisco University,noted: “They [the authoritarian elected leaders] have learned to use democraticinstruments in a way that is not democratic.”
He cited a referendum used by Correa to overhaul Ecuador’sjudiciary, appointing sympathetic new judges to favor him in his constitutionalbattles. “[The referendum] is a very democratic tool but its use has been tolegitimise a situation where there is no separation of powers,” Montalvo said. Themost prominent of the domineering new leaders is Chavez, Venezuela’s worldfamous president. The former army officer first rose to prominence in 1992 whenhe launched a failed coup against an elected government that had presided overan economic meltdown.
After 13 years in power, he controls Venezuela’s politicallandscape in a way that has undermined the country’s fragile democracy, cowingjudges, journalists and opponents alike. He has also acquired the nickname “DonRegalon” ” in English, Mr Giveaway ” for his lavish handouts in poorneighborhoods that support him. Although Chavez styles himself the champion ofthe dispossessed, the result of his government’s lack of accountability hashurt ordinary Venezuelans.
The country now suffers the world’s fifth-highest murderrate and second-highest inflation rate. Both problems hit the needy far harderthan the rich. Such statistics would normally leave Chavez’s chances ofre-election to a third term on Oct. 7 in tatters were he competing on a levelplaying field. But Venezuela’s opinion polls largely give the president adouble-digit lead over his centrist opponent, Henrique Capriles.
Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president since 2007, is accused offollowing a similar path, albeit using more sophisticated tactics. WhereasChavez’s bombastic style and army past usually turn off more educated voters,the highly articulate Correa, with his University of Illinois economics PhD,has won over many of his country’s leading thinkers. “Correa has taken the mosteffective practices in Venezuela and perfected them here,” said Montalvo, theprofessor at Quito’s San Francisco University, where Correa once taught. “Hisdiscourse is much more subtle, more intelligent,” Montalvo added. “In afive-minute speech, he can appeal both to the working class and intellectuals.”
But like Chavez, Correa has rewritten the constitution toallow his own re-election, harassed the press, criminalized protest and packedthe courts. Correa keeps his finger on the national pulse with a sophisticatedcommunications and market research machine, leaving awestruck admirers anddetractors alike. “As a political scientist, I would like to learn from themhow they do it,” Montalvo said, referring to the Correa administration'sability to pinpoint public opinion trends.
Although today’s authoritarians are self-described leftists,the precedents were established by two hard-right elected presidents, Peru’sAlberto Fujimori and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe. Yet there remains one crucialdifference between Uribe and Fujimori and their current generation of imitators” murder. Fujimori, who resigned in 2,000 amid a vote-rigging scandal, is nowserving a 25-year jail term for a range of crimes, including directing deathsquads against suspected members of Peru's Shining Path guerrillas ” some ofwhom turned out to be unconnected to the rebel group.
Uribe, who also redrafted the constitution to allow himselfa second four-year term, before finally leaving office in 2010, is not accusedof ordering killings. But opponents claim he allowed a climate of fear toflourish in Colombia, in which paramilitaries killed human rights defenders. “Uribeis a much more subtle case because he has been so positively viewed fordismantling the drug cartels and imposing peace on the country, albeit usingparamilitary means,” said Smith, the UCSD professor.
That favorable impression among conservatives outside ofColombia, turning a blind eye to serious human rights abuses, mirrors thepositive views some progressives in the US and Europe now have of Chavez,Correa, Morales and Ortega. Last month, the Morales government launchedcriminal charges against journalists who had faithfully reported thepresident’s inflammatory assertion that if people in a lowland region ofBolivia were hungry it was because they were lazy.
Meanwhile, Nicaragua’s Ortega has been widely accused offlouting his country’s constitutional ban on presidential re-election, stuffingballot boxes and increasingly running the country as a personal fiefdom.
Despite superficial similarities with Latin America’s newauthoritarians, Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has so far avoidedbeing categorised as one of them, largely as she has yet to successfully slantthe courts or close down critical media. Nevertheless, her personal style,which is both populist and confrontational, as well as Argentina’s politicalculture of patronage leaves Argentina vulnerable to following in the footstepsof Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua, experts warn.
Recent talk of amending the constitution to allow Fernandezde Kirchner a third successive term prompted furious protests in Buenos Aires. Withweak states across Latin America frequently failing to meet the most basicneeds of impoverished citizens, said Smith, the allure of the populist autocratwith a can-do image remains powerful.
Yet, without elected leaders being held accountable fortheir actions, citizens’ demands are unlikely to ever be fully met, said CesarRicaurte, of Quito-based journalism nonprofit Fundamedios, which has beentargeted by Correa for its criticism of his assaults on press freedom. “Theregion needs to build strong democratic institutions, not personality cultsaround messianic strongmen,” Ricaurte added. “That is the only way we are goingto transform and eradicate poverty.”
