From: pablito@phakt.usc.edu (Pablo Kleinman)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Re-Salas
Date: 15 Nov 92 20:00:03 GMT
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: phakt.usc.edu

In article <41016@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> robarr@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Robert O'Barr) writes:

>Well Jose, I was thinking in particular of dictators like Castro,
>Noriega, and the Ortega brothers where the opposition press was always
>in danger of being thrown in prison.  Thank goodness that our
>"interventionist" policies have lead to democratic elections in most
>of these contries where dictatorships used to be the norm and the
>people have tossed out the maximum leaders and the communists.

If this was true, then many of us would not have such a great objection to 
U.S. interventionism. The fact that the Department of State and the CIA have
in numerous cases supported right-wing dictatorships, not democratic regimes,
speaks for itself though.

>For someone who's lived his entire life in a country were someone
>can express his opinions without fear, the opinions expressed by Edelmiro 
>are nothing new.  However, some of you have never been subjected to
>these "alternate" viewpoints because they are not tolerated in your
>countries.  In many ways, latin-america has been as politically
>close-minded as the countries in the middle-east.  They have a faith
>that the United States is the great Satan and that only through a
>marxist takeover can true salvation come.  Anyone who does not
>accept these dogmas are branded as heritics and/or a lunatics.

I don't know if it may help to mention that through the years I always
considered myself an anti-communist. This is basically because I oppose
any kind of totalitarianism, which includes both extremes: fascism and
communism.

I have always supported massive privatizations of state holdings, even
when they were so unpopular in Argentina in the early 80s. However, the
way these privatizations were taken care of has undermined many of its
potential benefits, as the situation moved from public money-losing
monopolies to private people-squeezing monopolies. The fact that for
example in telecommunications Uruguay has the best telco in Latin America
and this company is state-owned, proves that the solution is not simply
privatizing but responsible privatization. There are not many examples
of responsible privatization to talk about in Latin America.

>The funny thing is that most latin-american "intellectuals" are out
>of touch with their own masses.  They fear that the ignorant masses
>might elect someone like Saul Menem who will privatize national
>holdings, sign free trade agreements with the Great Satan, warm
>relations with Great Britain (i.e. admit they were wrong about the
>Falklands)  Send a few naval ships over to do combat with Sadam
>Hussein to show Argentinas support for the new world order. etc.
>etc.

If that is what you think, then you should get some more information. I feared
Carlos Menem when he said during the campaign that we would get the Malvinas
back even if through confrontation, or when he talked about some vague and
indeed unexistant "productive revolution." Menem inspired fear because he was
an old friend of Khadaffi, and because his record as governor of the small
province of La Rioja was miserable.

I applaud in a general way that finally there have been serious moves to
consolidate economic stability, although question very much his invasion
of the Judiciary, his irresponsible privatizations and his all-corrupt
staff.

Neither Menem nor anyone has "admitted they were wrong about the Falklands"
nor they will. The islands are Argentinian, no Argentinian doubts this and
they have been a national issue for decades and will probably continue to be
until our sovereignty is restored there. Menem is a sharp guy who believes
in a "process," and he knows that the only way to get those islands back is
by making Argentina more friendly and most importantly, PREDICTABLE. He has
moved to warm up Argentine-British relations because that will help his
economic plan, and because he intends to be a strong ally of the United
States and the E.C. in Latin America. I do not oppose that, although I do
find his "ass-licking" techniques a bit naive. :)

In 89, I gave my support to Eduardo Angeloz, a moderate of the now main
opposition force who said he'd do more or less what Menem's doing in terms
of economics (Menem did not say he would do all this) and who also has a
much stronger background when it refers to respecting the other two powers:
Legislative and Judicial, an area in which Menem certainly gets an "F."

          -Pablo

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Pablo Kleinman
Hollywood, CA, USA
pablito@scf.usc.edu
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