RE: RE: South American election news

I've always found South American politics to be interesting, even if not very meaningful. For as long as I have paid attention to it (going back to the early 1970s), it has always been a pendulum, sometimes swinging from far left to far right in less than a year.

From what I've read — history of SA politics — I agree that it may be mostly unaffecting of things here in the US, but several things make me wonder what may happen in the SA political climate over the next decade: an aging Castro and Chavez' relationship, Venezuela's oil riches and its influence/effect on neighboring countries, a seemingly anti-US sentiment throughout South and Central America, and changes in trade and immigration. All this makes me think that a big SA political surprise of some sort might happen in the next 10 years.

The US has ever been the bogeyman for South American socialists (and more than a few fascists). I think it safe to say that Bolivia's defenses and their relative strength is pretty far down on the US military's list of concerns.

I agree, but a continent of nations that grow to resent their neighbor is a slightly scary thought to me. Small numbers add up to big ones — Bolivia plus Venezuela plus whoever is next to think that the US govt. is out to get them... You know what I mean.