Comments by Planeta2

The discrepacies between Mr Uriba nd Mr Santos is not only between these two individuals, but between sectors of Colombian society.

On one side the "feudal lords" (Mr Santos) and on the other side the "builders" (Mr Uribe).

Mr Uribe got elected because the goverment under the "feudal lords" was extremely incompetent, not only did they not solve any problems at all, but actually made things worse by doing nothing. And the main victims of the governmental incompetence were not the "Bogotanos" but the inhabitants of the regional capitals. And these victims could not just "run and hide" as many of Bogota's elite did.

Mr Uribe looked to grow the economy and trade to get everyone out of poverty, Mr Santos looks to redistribute wealth to level everyone out.

Mr Uribe looked for solutions with measurable outcomes, Mr Santos goes for consensus and in Colombia "consensus" means burocracy, government jobs, in other words, corruption.

Instead or creating more burocracy, Mr Santos should be spending in new infrastruture. With the creation of a burocracy ... Mr Santos is giving finacial incentives to the same old crooks (and new ones) to benefit themselves (and their families) from government expenditures.

The other two arms of the government in Colombia are too busy to do anything useful. Member of congress are looking for a piece of the government pie, and the Juditiary, recently politicized, are looking for scapegoats to bring Mr Uribe into trial for whatever charges they can muster.

Anyway, contrary the garbage that comes out of the mouths of many burocrats, and "intellectuals" in Latin America and over the world, only economic growth and trade brings people out of poverty for good.

BentuBuy,

Please do not allow your racism to get ahead of your intellect.

In countries where the Justice system does not work expeditiously and where corruption at every level goes unpunished, crime is a very profitable business. And more so if it can be "dressed" in a "utopian revolutionary" clothes and win the support of other "pseudo-socialist" revolutionaries in Latin America and in the developed countries.

Correa is one more of the self-proclaimed "saviours" that pop up in Latin America every so often ... their "election" is ussually due to populist appeals and poor economic performance ... and their survival is due to high prices of raw materials ... the general prevalence of these "clowns" in Latin America can only be atributed to the poor quality of the education systems, and the population's limited access to reliable information channels.

Chavez, like many dictators before him (and many others after him) lives off paying off his supporters with the goverment's coffers.

To guarranty that these abuses (and many others) are not no procecuted, he has taken over the Courts and the police, to place them under the control of his surrogates.

To keep his underlings under control he placed the internal security services, the national registry, and many other government agencies under the control of Cuban mercenaries that report only to him and the Cuban goverment.

There you have it, the "Cuban model" explained ... just replace Chavez for Castro, and Cuban mercenaries for foreign ones (Argentine and Soviet).

When you control the state jobs, the state coffers, the justice system, and the army ... anyone can get "re-elected" ....... but the use of the word "election" in the description of these facts not only causes a rational disonance, but also demeans the real value of the word.

An "orange" is an orange not an apple.

A "dictator" is a dictator, not a "re-elected president".

Mainly nice thoughts, but nothing of matter.

Just remove the profit motive ...

"Harry Bowman .... Baffling. It's like they want do delegitimize their own government...."

Baffling ????

Delegitimize their own government??

Chavez is just a dictator, he controls the justice system, the army, the police, congress, provincial governments, and many "nationalized" industries, if any of "his employees" votes against him ... they get "fired" ... if someone in the media complains against him ... their companies get "the license" revoked ...

The is not such a thing as "their own government" in Venezuela ... unless the "they" you refer to ... is Chavez and his cronies ...

Chavez is just another petty dictator ... and his subordinaates nothing more than thieves.

In a sense this event just proves that the Venezuelan magazine (ALL the Venezuelan media, the minority political parties, and the Venezualn society) is correct in its assesment of the current Venezuelan reality.

The Syrian people are putting the dead.

The western nations are condeming the murders.

The Russian, Chinese, and Muslim despots are looking the other way, hoping their people's don't try kick them out too ... and if they try to kick them out ... they are hoping the Syrian despot survives .. and they will surely will follow suit in the same murderous manner.

And many blind people still thinks that "culture" (or lack off) does not matter.

In Venezuela (like in all other dictatorships) there is only one truth ...

ALL the power of the state is in the hands of Chavez and his cronies ...

In Latinamerica the students have always been the pawns ... of the political aspirations of the teacher unions membership (socialists).

If these guys are so unhappy with the current system ... why is there not a massive migration of Chilean students to the socialist paradises of Cuba and Venezuela?

Perspective (or lack of perspective) is ussually the problem, and the teacher unions (the socialists) will capitalize on it.

Although the latin amercian nations see Brazil as a counterweight to the US ... Brazillians see themselves as the Southamerican superpower.

Santos is following the old priciple ... "keep your friends close ... and your enemies even closer"

What is amazing is the incredible incompetence of the "democrats" and the gullibility of the electorate.

After seeing the collapse of the welfare state in Europe ... the US still has the opportunity of changing course ...

Although not with Mr Obama at the white house ... nor the "democrats" in congress.

Humala will be Lula's doggie ... like Lula's previous "favorite" Chavez ...

First will be to destroy the "economic" agreements with Colombia, Mexico, and Chile ...

Second will be to give to Brazilian companies multiple infrastructure projects within Peru ... Like happened with another of Lula's "boys" .... Correa

When all the damage is done, and Brazil eats its cake ... like with Chavez in Venezuela ... and Correa in Ecuador ... Humala will be let free to completely destroy whatever is left of the Peruvian democratic institutions.

With incompetent governments all around in Latin America ... Brazil will look even better in the eyes of the world ...

Muslims are a weird bunch ...

First they put no vaule to the life of non muslims ... and as we see in Syria, Somalia, Iran, Lybia, ... even less value to the life of its own "muslim" citizens who try to think for themselves ...

And that is the point ...

Muslims are treated as if they were no more than "slaves" of their own political/military/religious elites ...

Maybe muslims are just that ... "slaves" ... and that is the reason for their anger at life ... and at anynoe that dares to question anything at all.

Where are the "muslim intelectuals"? ... are there any?

Correa is just one more of the "new type" of latin dictator, along the lines of the dictators in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia ... all of whom follow the political control protocols implemented by the Cuban dictatorship.

The old type of dictator used military force to get and hold onto power, the "new type" are elected by popular demand to solve a particular "crisis" (real or imaginary) and come to power with the goal of modifying the constitution to improve the lives of the citizenry, the they overturn the High Courts, modify the laws, tilt every goverment agency into a their own fielfdom, and every member of the opposition a criminal.

Now with Correa un-oficially in control of the broadcast media, Ecuador is officially screwed.

How will Humala govern Peru?

The guy is a rabid leftists nationalist (a facist) who had to move to the center to be "electable". It will be only a matter of time before he "reverts" to ist roots.

The lessons learned by the new latAm dictators (Chavez, Correa, Morales, Ortega, Kitchner, and Lugo) from Fidel Castro, is that controlling the state institutions is not enough to control their "servants", to achieve full control they must also control their thoughts (public discourse), and the intimidation of the free press is the first step.

Imperfeito

"What would be better for Venezuelans and ultimately for Latin Americans, Chavismo or a mimic of the Iranian Shah regime controlled by a handful of Lords bribed by uncle Sam to keep the oil flowing cheaper? Here is something worth thinking over."

How many other false dichotomies do you carry in your sleeve?