"Latin America Swings Right, Not Left"

[New Tet]

Newsweek says that most Latin American "voters" want more capitalism, not less:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/210808


"In part, this is because Latin America voters are changing. Despite the financial meltdown and for all the lather over neoliberalism, young Latin Americans are still in favor of free-market capitalism. In a PODER/Zogby poll commissioned earlier this year by NEWSWEEK, 63 percent of Latin Americans ages 18 to 29 said they believe that free trade is not only good but "benefits all people." The same number saw Colombia's FARC guerrillas as terrorists or drug traffickers, and two thirds named Chávez as the leader worst suited to lead the region in the future. That doesn't mean that Latin America is veering right again, but it may just be learning to cherish the middle ground."

[Mather]

One thing to keep in context here:

Along with most other poorer parts of the world in developing countries, not everyone has a landline phone (which you need to take part in these surveys), so these results are already heavily biased in that they have most likely only done a survey of the middle and upper classes, so no surprises as to what system they think is best.

A good (and recent) example is the opinion polls that numerous media companies and news agencies have carried out in Honduras, asking Hondurans what they thought of the June 2009 military coup. Given that ownership of a phone is not as common there as it would be in say Europe or the USA, these opinion polls simply gave the opinions of the elite and those wealthy enough to own a phone and landline.

Like the social unrest and political struggle in Honduras against the illegal coup regime, the massive social struggles and day to day reality provide a much better and far more effective indicator of what people's true feelings are in Latin America, as opposed to a few phone polls.

[Manzil]

I wouldn't be surprised if some number of young people were attracted by free trade and its promise of mutual enrichment. They would not have directly experienced the worst effects of the Washington consensus in recent decades. Moreover, note the disproportionate role of affluent students in the resistance to Venezuelan Bolivarianism. That the American media would generalise from these individuals' experience and conclude that most young people are against the left reformists elected across Latin America is unsurprising.

[Kassad]

The fact that Newsweek says something makes me want to believe the total opposite. This was the same magazine with the 'We are All Socialists Now' cover a little while back with a bunch of their reactionary columnists marking the death of capitalism because of Obama's election. Also, I seriously doubt these questions were asked to the multitude of people who have been impoverished by capitalism's iron grip in the region that has totally decimated entire countries there. I'm not going to trust a Western poll from a Western magazine to give me factual statements on progress in Latin America.

[JimmyJazz]

The fact that Newsweek says something makes me want to believe the total opposite. This was the same magazine with the 'We are All Socialists Now' cover a little while back with a bunch of their reactionary columnists marking the death of capitalism because of Obama's election. Also, I seriously doubt these questions were asked to the multitude of people who have been impoverished by capitalism's iron grip in the region that has totally decimated entire countries there. I'm not going to trust a Western poll from a Western magazine to give me factual statements on progress in Latin America.

Newsweek is crap.

[Bright Banana Beard]

Landline phone is rare these day for those in Latin America, only the upper-middle class and above can afford it. You can count on my word, this article is totally bullshit.

[New Tet]

In my work I frequently deal with Venezuelans that come to the U.S. to shop and travel. With few exceptions they are economically affluent and very reactionary in their opinion of Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution. One even told me that the poor were "happy" until Chavez stirred them up.

[Andy Bowden]

If its a phone poll then its about as useful as ascertaining public opinion as a chocolate teapot.

I remember Pew also conducted polls showing support for free market capitalism high in many South American countries - with a considerable lead in Venezuela.

Which shows how accurate those kind of polls are.

[scarletghoul]

That article is extremely biased and as others have pointed out it's more than likely just the opinion of the well off latin americans. If Latin America was really swinging Right, it wouldn't require coups and death squads to suppress the Left.

[Pogue]

Are we honestly supposed to believe that the poor of the shantoy towns of Venezuela, Brazil, et all, supoprt the free market system which has brutalised their societies and caused them undue suffering? As if the working class is stupid enough to support this. I'd have to agree, and also echo the words of Noam Chomsky: If you conduct polls through means dominated by the rich, you will find out the opinions of the rich. This is like conducting a person to person poll of opinions on high public spending at a golf club or private school in the UK.

[OneNamedNameLess]

Newsweek is crap.

It's actually quite good. It's very good value for money as the content is lengthy and descriptive. I enjoy the articles in Newsweek and like how they set the scene, a bit like Time magazine, in much of the mag which is useful if your not clued up on the matter. One problem on the other hand is that their conclusions consistently champion capitalist development in other nations which in turn strengthen American imperialism. So I suppose leftists should take this with a pich of salt :D

[MarxSchmarx]

It's actually quite good. It's very good value for money as the content is lengthy and descriptive. I enjoy the articles in Newsweek and like how they set the scene, a bit like Time magazine, in much of the mag which is useful if your not clued up on the matter. One problem on the other hand is that their conclusions consistently champion capitalist development in other nations which in turn strengthen American imperialism. So I suppose leftists should take this with a pich of salt :D

Huh? Are we talking about the same magazine? What are you comparing it to, a supermarket tabloid? If I wanted a right-wing rag that made me feel like a pseudo-intellectual I'd reach for the economist. That, or national geographic. They really "know so little about so much".

The stories Newsweek and Time and their ilk cover are vacuous at best and just reinforce the conventional wisdom of the chattering class. They seldom provide any new insight and are just longer versions of the wire stories. They're editorialists are right-wing and they have not served a useful social purpose in decades. They never break an investigative story, and they're analysis is quite predictable and downright saccherine. They're days are numbered.

As far as the topic of the thread goes, well, I doubt it is taken seriously by anyone except those who operate within the mainstream media bubble.