Latin America Tilting to the Left

While Paulo A. Paranagua features an article on Latin America's drift to the left, while Annie Gasnier reflects on Lula's chances for re-election in Brazil, and while Joëlle Stolz wonders what will happen if Amlo wins Mexico's election in July, Le Monde editorializes on the differences between the Chávez model and the Lula model. (Incidentally, note that the French, who are always up in arms about the correct use of their language, notably the accents — they made a huge stink when they discovered that accents weren't going to be used in the (American-invented) web's URL addresses — don't seem to give much of a hoot when it comes to Spanish diacritical marks.)

Entre Hugo Chavez et Lula da Silva, deux gauches s'opposent. L'une propose un discours radical aux accents populistes et avance des solutions nationalistes. L'autre, centriste, prône une politique budgétaire orthodoxe afin d'attirer les capitaux et cherche à insérer l'économie dans la mondialisation.

Meanwhile, an IHT reader (Katherine Warman Stamford of Connecticut) replies to Juan Forero's mainly-hagiographic NYT article on Venezuela, recent visitors to which are seeking "a taste of revolution".

Regarding the report "Caracas calling: A new mecca for the left" (March 22): What about the obvious questions? Where is that $60 billion plus of government-owned oil money going? It now takes more than two hours — without rush-hour traffic — on perilous roads to get into Caracas from the airport because the bridge is down. Households below the poverty line haven't changed. For fear of robbery, drivers do not stop at red lights . Where is the evidence that the Chávez model is working?