WL round up for LatAm July 24 to Aug 21

[EFerrari]

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3182-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-released-july-24-august-21-2011-

[rabs]

1. Tons of info there, for which gracias

Saw one that will be of keen interest to Peace Patriot. She has been asking about what happened in Chile that Pinera got elected. Hope she she sees this.

This article lays it out pretty clearly -- I had posted this before, but in much fewer words.
:hi:
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Who Lost Chile? Conservative Multi-Millionaire is President Elect


The news that the rightwing multi-millionaire Sebastian Piñera had won Chile’s presidential runoff on Sunday January 17 with 51.6% of the vote left the Concertación coalition of Socialists and Christian Democrats reeling. Despite a poor showing in December’s first electoral round, few in the Concertación really believed that their man, the dour Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei, could actually lose.

The thousands of Piñera supporters who poured into the centre of Santiago flushed with exhilaration seemed equally stunned. Flanked by family, Piñera bathed in the vocabulary of democratic triumphalism long the exclusive domain of his rivals. “Today,” he boomed, “a strong clear majority of free men and women have opted for change, for future and for hope”. The flag waving “generation of Chile’s bicentenary” lapped it up bewitched. For both victors and losers, something monumental was happening in Chilean politics.

Piñera is the first Chilean conservative to win a presidential election in over half a century. He is the first right-winger to ever garner the 50% of the popular vote necessary to win the presidency today. Until Sunday, it appeared inconceivable that the hugely successful Michelle Bachelet, whose approval ratings have reached a record 80%, would have to pass the presidential sash to an opponent. The Concertación has dominated Chilean politics since winning the No vote in the 1989 plebiscite on Pinochet’s rule and has never before lost an election. The No camp was always the silent majority, the economically powerful but politically stigmatized Sí the resentful minority. Or so it was, until 18:30 on Sunday when Frei conceded defeat.

The Wrong Candidate

So, how did Latin America’s most successful governing coalition come to this? Piñera ran a good campaign and avoided mistakes. His Alianza por el cambio (Alliance for Change) - consisting of Renovación Nacional, basically a neoliberal club for Chile’s landed gentry, and the Unión Democrática Independiente, a dynamic party of former Pinochet henchmen with slightly fascist undertones and close ties to Opus Dei - managed to avoid public quarrels.

More
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/chile-archives-34/2323-who-lost-chile-conservative-multimillionair-is-president-elect

[Judi Lynn]

2. Had no idea it was the start-up of the gov't's offer to give leniency to AUC if they demobilized

which lead to widespread awareness of specific politicians and their ties to the narcotrafficking, violent death squads.

Looking forward to reading this. Thank you.