Latin America Shifts to the Center-Left --as US takes sharp Right turn

[rodeodance]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1204-09.htm

Published on Saturday, December 4, 2004 by the Interhemispheric Resource Center

Latin America Shifts to the Center-Left

by Laura Carlsen

On his first trip abroad since re-election, George W. Bush was greeted by thousands of Chileans, protesting his trade and military policies and telling him to go home.

The protests at last week’s APEC meeting were not just a manifestation of the historic anti-American response to an imperial president. The anti-Bush demonstrations in Santiago highlighted a new political trend in Latin America--where many countries are moving to the center-left, just as the United States takes a sharp turn to the right.

With all eyes focused on the presidential elections in the United States , key elections in Latin American countries went almost unnoticed over the past weeks. The results in Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Nicaragua, and to some extent Brazil, showed a shift toward the center-left or a consolidation of left-leaning leadership. .....