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Latin America in recent years has
seen a transformation from the predominance of the military
dictatorships which abounded from independence to the late
20th century, to democratically elected governments in all of
the 34 countries involved in the Summit of the Americas
process. Nonetheless, the disappointing social and economic
progress of many countries in the region under democratic
governance has generated doubts, dissatisfaction and continued
dissent, and indeed it would be premature to conclude that
democracy is a settled issue in the hemisphere.
An opinion survey conducted by
Latinobarometro (www.latinobarometro.org)
in 2001 showed only 48% of support for democracy in Latin
America (a decline from 62% in 1997) with variations from 25% in
El Salvador to 79% in Uruguay. The same survey showed that there
was only an overall 25% satisfaction rate with democracy in the
region.
The most glaring example of an
increasingly unstable democracy is Venezuela, where the populist
Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez failed to seize power in a 1992
military coup, spent time in prison, was pardoned and was then
successfully elected president in December 1998. Chavez has
since polarized the country, pitting the "people" against the
"oligarchs", and provoking continual and tumultuous public
mobilizations of both opposition and government supporters.
President Chavez was temporarily toppled in a popular uprising
in April 2002 after his supporters allegedly fired on civilians
who protested against his measures, killing several
demonstrators. But the hastily installed provisional president
quickly overstepped his support and Chavez was then reinstated
as President by another popular uprising. Since then, despite a
60 day general strike that paralyzed the nation, the Venezuelan
opposition has not succeeded in forcing him to resign. Venezuela
presents the dilemma of a democratically elected leader who has
resorted to undemocratic and arbitrary measures to perpetuate
his power.
Peru also witnessed anti-democratic
actions from former President Alberto Fujimori from his
"self-coup" in 1992 when he seized dictatorial powers, through
his questionable reelection in 1995, determined to be neither
free nor fair by the OAS. Fujimori's perversion of his original
democratic mandate, culminating in his attempt to seek an
unprecedented third term in office ended in his resignation and
self exile in 2000. He had suspended the Congress and re-written
the constitution to eliminate a constitutional limit of two
consecutive terms for any president. Peru returned to free and
fair democratic elections in 2001, electing Alejandro Toledo
president.
Ecuador saw the deposition of
President Jamil Mahuad in January 2000 forced to resign by a
massive campaign of civil and military unrest. The de facto coup
was quickly legitimated with the Vice President assuming office.
Even the Chilean government, considered a model for the region
since democracy was restored in 1990, raised eyebrows in 1999
with its overt willingness to use "desacato" or slander of the
state laws to repress speech and publications embarrassing to
high-level military and civilian officials.
These incidents raise the question
of the status of governance in the region. Unfortunately,
democracy and good governance have not always gone hand in hand.
There has been an alarming increase in poverty levels in recent
years, and the social unrest and popular dissatisfaction with
government responses has undermined support for democracy in
many countries, as the Latinobarometro poll demonstrates.
The Caribbean members of the Summit
of the Americas process have had significantly less tensions,
possibly because there is no history of dictatorships in most of
these countries, but there have still been a number of stumbling
blocks to achievement of fully democratic societies.
Haiti is the primary example of a
country whose history is riddled with arbitrary rule,
dictatorships and political instability throughout all of the
20th century, and the problems continue today. In 1981, the
Grenadian government was overthrown in a bloody coup which saw
the execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. There was also a
failed coup attempt in Trinidad & Tobago in July 1992, but lack
of popular support ended it after just 6 days.
In the face of continuing regional
instability, an organized international effort to promote and
protect democracy continues. On September 11, 2001, the date of
the horrific terrorist attacks on the US, Secretary of State
Collin Powell was in Lima, Peru at the General Assembly of the
Organization of American States for the signing of the
Inter-American Democratic Charter, which recognizes democracy as
indispensable to the stability, peace and development of the
region.
The Charter had been preceded by
the adoption of a Democracy Clause at the Third Summit of the
Americas meeting held in Quebec City in April 2001 which
established that any unconstitutional alteration or interruption
of the democratic order in a state of the Hemisphere constitutes
an insurmountable obstacle to that state's participation in the
Summit of the Americas Process. This clause is now incorporated
as Article 19 of the Charter.
Ironically enough, it may well have
been this very Article 19 which contributed to the reinstatement
of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela in April 2002, when US
officials seemed briefly ambivalent about the desirability of
his ouster and sympathetic to the opposition leaders. The OAS
membership condemned the coup and the US then belatedly spoke up
clearly for the restoration of democratic legitimacy.
The Inter-American Democratic
Charter itself serves as a guide of what the principle of
democracy should connote in the region. It covers a range of
issues such as: The Electoral Process, Human Rights, Integral
Development, Gender and Race Discrimination, Government
Transparency, Workers' Rights, Poverty Elimination, Education,
Preservation of Democratic Institutions and the Promotion of
Democratic Culture. Details of the Charter can be found on the
OAS website www.oas.org.
Against this troubled backdrop,
Latin American and Caribbean countries continue to hold
democratic elections at their constitutionally established
times, and though certain autocratic, populist, and even
revolutionary undertones remain abroad in the region, the
democratization process still survives and hopefully, endures.
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