THE LEFT GAINS NEW GROUND IN LATIN AMERICA

The inauguration of Evo Morales, a former coca grower and an avowed
socialist, as the still popular president of Bolivia, highlights what
appears to be a strongly leftist trend in Latin America. Is this
trend real, and is it something U.S. policymakers should address?

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, says Fidel Castro is his
hero and delights in tweaking Uncle Sam's nose, hosting a World
Social Forum in Caracas this week that will feature denunciations of
U.S. "imperialism." Chile's new president is Michelle Bachelet of the
Socialist Party. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have elected
presidents recently with "backgrounds in social activism," as a
Washington Post story phrased it.

The leading candidate in Peru's presidential election later this year
is an avowed socialist.

Ian Vasquez, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on
Global Economic Liberty, said there are different kinds of
leftist-populists in his native South America. Hugo Chavez and Evo
Morales appear to be true believers, who seem convinced that
socialism and nationalizing industries will really improve the lot of
the poor. Most of the others -- da Silva in Brazil comes to mind --
may talk the talk, but keep government spending and monetary policies
under reasonable discipline.

Chavez can strut his neo-Marxist stuff because Venezuela is a major
oil producer that has benefited from the recent run-up in oil prices.
A little of that windfall has gone into programs for the poor, but
much has been squandered on showpieces like this week's
Yanqui-baiting festival or, worse, corruption.

Chile's last president, Ricardo Lagos, called himself a socialist but
touted free trade and didn't change the free-market policies that
made Chile South America's most prosperous country.

Morales' popularity in Bolivia does have a great deal to do with U.S.
drug-control policies, which have disrupted traditional agricultural
patterns and customs in South America without reducing the flow of
cocaine to the United States. The U.S.-promoted war on drugs
undermines civil society in Latin America, promotes violence and
corruption, and creates opportunities for ruthless people to make
large fortunes. It is difficult to find any benefits.

Aside from ending the drug war, there is little the United States can
or should do to counter the current Latin American trend. U.S.
influence is strictly limited, and attempts to exert it will be spun
as imperialism. Aside from rhetoric, however, there is little the new
guard of Latin American socialists can do to harm the core interests
of the United States.