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Protests Sweeping South America Show Rising Antigovernment Anger

By Nick Miroff

“Anger over corruption is really the one thing that unites Latin Americans right now,” says AS/COA's Brian Winter.

Nearly every nation in South America has been jolted by large protests or violent clashes in recent weeks, a continental surge of anti-government anger unlike anything in years.

On the streets of Venezuela, opponents of the left-wing government are squaring off against riot police nearly every day. In Paraguay, angry crowds sacked and firebombed the country’s parliament building after lawmakers tried to alter presidential term limits. Powerful unions in Argentina crippled the country’s transportation networks this month with a general strike.

Whether leftist or right-wing, the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and even tiny French Guiana are all facing major demonstrations, abysmal approval ratings or both.

The political dynamics vary across the continent, but analysts see common threads. The global commodity boom that ushered millions of South Americans into the middle class has burned out, crimping government finances. And a more politically engaged and plugged-in citizenry has lost patience with rank corruption and the feints of authoritarian leaders who chip away at democratic checks on their power…

“Anger over corruption is really the one thing that unites Latin Americans right now,” said Brian Winter, editor of the Americas Quarterly journal. It’s partly a reaction to the economic downturn, he said, “but it’s also the product of a middle class that has grown by 50 million people over the last decade.” 

Those families “are paying taxes now, and they care about good governance,” added Winter, “and they are smart enough to know that’s impossible unless the old way of doing politics in Latin America changes.”

Read the full article here.

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