Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez sore lowest approval rating in Latin America

[UnrepentantLiberal]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2016635734_apltchileleaderspoll.html?syndication=rss

The Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile —
Latin Americans give U.S. President Barack Obama the highest approval rating for any leader in the region.

Obama is rated 6.3 on a scale of one to 10 in the survey conducted by the Chile-based Latinobarometro polling organization. He is closely followed by Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff at 6.

Latinobarometro polled 20,000 people in 18 Latin American countries. The leader with the worst mark is former Cuban President Fidel Castro at 4.1. Next lowest are Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, who tied at 4.4.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has 4.9 and Chilean leader Sebastian Pinera got 5.1.

[Tejas]

1. Obama will not fuel the cartels with AK-47's

But due to Chavez's dealings with Russia for AK's and a factory to build many more and on top of all that an ammunition factory, he has the potential to ruin countless lives as an arms supplier.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

3. Nice.

No wonder he loved Gadaffi.

[roody]

10. They have a long way to go to build more arms than the US. eom

[Arctic Dave]

2. I always love "report card" polls.

Who was #1, Colombia?

[Marazinia]

4. Since When is Obama a Latin American Leader?

This poll reeks of right wing bias. I wonder who they asked? Latin America's %1, no doubt. Only in Latin America, it's probably more like a fraction of %1.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

5. Think NAFTA.

More jobs for Latin America. Ole'!

[Exilednight]

6. I agree, something doesn't add up. n/t

[Zorro]

7. You can check out the polling organization and the 2011 results here

http://www.latinobarometro.org/latino/latinobarometro.jsp

Fidel, Hugo, Danny, and Evo are again at the bottom of the list, but at least there's been some improvement for them since last year.

[Marazinia]

8. The page I read has something different

There's what seems to be a basic quality of life and basic rights graph and below that, is a graph that I'm assuming is linked to the first, with country's names. Venezuela is high on the list, right under Costa Rica. I don't see Cuba anywhere. The graphs are also from 2008. Furthermore, an article to the side links to a report showing confidence in government over a long time period and up to 2011. Venezuela is fourth on the list, far ahead of most countries.

[Zorro]

9. You'll find the information in the Latinobarometro 2011 report

It's in Spanish, but you'll find the poll numbers the OP refers to toward the end of the report.

[Marazinia]

11. I'll have to figure out which link leads to it tomorrow

I read spanish well enough, but I'm posting well past my bedtime, so I probably overlooked it!

[sabrina 1]

12. And still more popular than our leaders. So what's the significance

of how someone in Latin America is doing in a poll that is most likely biased anyhow when our own problems are so bad we've go people out on the streets willing to stay there until most unpopular business-oriented government starts prosecuting criminals, among other things.

[Zorro]

13. You obviously didn't read the material

Obama is the most highly considered leader when compared to ALL the current LatAm leaders.

[sabrina 1]

14. I don't bother with the weekly anti-Latin American propaganda.

I do know that no US President is trusted anywhere in the world, and the most disappointing, just as he is here, has been Obama.

Chavez is popular in Europe and the ME and Africa. The lies that are spread here prevent people from being able to make their own judgements. But the wikileaks cables revealed that and helped explain those lies.

[naaman fletcher]

15. You are very enlightened

I have found, too, that one can gain a lot of knowledge by not reading things that I don't agree with.

[sabrina 1]

18. Well, it's not a question of agreeing, it's a question of facts.

The Western 'media' has proven itself to be unreliable when the interests of Big Business are at stake. The Wikileaks Cables also verified what many suspected about the coverage from the Western media of Latin America, so it's not a conspiracy theory to say that they are conducting a propaganda war against Latin American leaders who put their people first. We have confirmation of that now.

[Zorro]

19. Yet another stupefying response

in an unbroken series of stupefying responses.

Reading your comments is like watching an Adam Sandler movie.

[sabrina 1]

20. Yet another content free, lame 'let's resort to personal insullts

when we all we have is propaganda' response. Reading your comments always makes me laugh. They are so predictable.

[Zorro]

22. Chuckle over this

"I do know that no US President is trusted anywhere in the world..." If that's what you "know", then how do you explain this? http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63468.html

"...it's a question of facts" Yes, indeed. The FACT is that Latinobarometro reportedly polled 19,000 persons in 18 Latin American countries, something you would have discovered if you actually bothered to follow the link. Is that sample size inadequate?

"Chavez is popular in Europe and the ME and Africa." Got anything substantial to support that assertion? Trancelike mantras don't count.

"In polls conducted by Western pollsters?" Latinobarometro -- a Chilean NGO -- is a "Western pollster"? Because they are west of the Greenwich Meridian?

The TRUTH is that Chavez is not popular in Latin America, as the report indicates. But I will admit he's popular in Nicaragua (and probably Cuba, but who knows -- since the Castros don't allow unfettered polling of the population) -- but then he's giving them millions of dollars in aid. Giving away money will always be a way to buy popularity.

[sabrina 1]

24. Too bad you didn't look closely at those polls. As they do not

support your 'because I hate Chavez because he looks out for the poor which means the rich have to share a little, everyone hates him' theory.

Since you have so much faith in that Polling Corp, I'll use it to look at the effects of Chavez's time in office regarding how the Venezuelan people view democracy now as opposed to BEFORE Chavez:




So I guess they like the Chavez Government, which we already knew since they have continued to vote for him over that ten year period.

And on how they feel about Democracy, (after ten years of Chavez's democratic initiatives v before Chavez), compared to other forms of government:



So in 2001 57% favored Democracy, but during the Chavez years that jumped by 27% points to 84%. That sounds right according to my Venezuelan friends. The far right in Venezuela hate him, and the far right in the West hate him. He refuses to let Greedy Global Capitalists hoard everything for themselves, as they were doing when he took over. Ven. had an 80% poverty and illiteracy rate when he took over, he has cut that in half. That's quite an accomplishment and I can't imagine any Democrat not being happy about that.

However, the actual poll that matters as I said, will be the election. Venezuela's elections are the cleanest in the world according to Election Watchers, like the Jimmy Carter Foundation and it looks like the people of Venezuela TOTALLY disagree with you.

I'll take the people of Venezuela's opinion on what is best for their country. It is their country, and your opinion or mine doesn't count for much.

We have enough problems in this country, where rather than IMPROVING poverty and literacy as Chavez has done, we have gone BACKWARDS with one in six Americans now living in poverty in this country. Maybe we should ask Chavez to give us some advice.

So much for runaway Capitalism, a system that benefits only a very few and which is being rejected by people all over the world because of its devastating failure.

[Zorro]

28. Let's see. You can't dispute the polling results that Chavez is not popular in Latin America

and avoid responding to my posted questions, so you reference off-topic polls that show Venezuelans are more appreciative of democracy.

Nothing in your response contradicts the polling result that Chavez is not popular in Latin America -- and Latin Americans know him better than most.

"Maybe we should ask Chavez to give us some advice." A remark worthy of an Adam Sandler movie.

[naaman fletcher]

23. How do you know what the facts are,

if you refuse to read them?

[sabrina 1]

25. The facts are the results of elections. Maybe you should have

respect for the will of the people of Venezuela. Chavez has been reelected in some of the cleanest elections in the world, each time he has run for office.

The facts are in the massively reduced poverty and literacy numbers under his administration.

Compared to this country, where the current administration's poll numbers are, last time I looked, barely above 40% or lower, 38% and our poverty rate compared to Venezuela's has sky-rocketed over the same period when Venezuela's was diminishing. We are not in a position to try to push OUR failed policies on countries that have had far more success, maybe because they do actually care about raising their people out of poverty and ignorance and here in the US, our government couldn't give a damn about the people.

I do indeed read the facts. I do NOT read Western propaganda about any Oil Rich countries in the ME or anywhere else, it's all the same regardless of the country when there is a government that will not hand over their resources to Global Corporations.

[naaman fletcher]

26. Huh?

What does that have to do with anything? I made no statements at all about Venezuela one way or another. I simply asked how it is that you can claim to know facts while willfully admitting that you don't read things about it.

[sabrina 1]

27. You misunderstood. I said I do not read Western media

PROPAGANDA. Our Corporate Media is not a good source of information, especially on foreign affairs. I read a lot which is why I recognize propaganda when I see it.

[Bacchus39]

29. which media do you read? Latinbarometro is a South American based organization

although, I certainly consider South America western.

[Bacchus39]

17. the poll surveyed Latinos region wide including in the US, nothing to do with OWS n/t

s

[Bacchus39]

16. Chavez and Castro have been at the bottom for several years now

Bush shared those low marks during his presidency. Obama was number one last year too.

[sabrina 1]

21. In polls conducted by Western pollsters? The only polsl that

count are the ones that elected Chavez in every election over the past decade or more.

I guess the Venezuelan people have spoken for themselves, over and over again.