Latin Americans should share their experiences with democratisation with other countries in the global South
By Pepe Escobar
Al-Jazeera
".....These things take time
Egyptians may not know that it took Brazilians no less than 21 years to get rid of a military dictatorship. The unbreakable Dilma in the photo is the 1970s counterpart of the Google generation today fighting for democracy from Cairo to Manama, from Aleppo to eastern Saudi Arabia.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose - except a lot of time. In Brazil, real democracy was advancing just as it was smashed by the 1964 military coup - actively supervised by Washington. The coma lasted for a long two decades.
Then, in the 1980s, the military decided to dub their snail-pace "transition" towards democracy as "slow, gradual and secure" - secure for them, of course. But it was the street - Tahrir Square-style - that finally turbocharged it.
The strengthening of democratic institutions took over a decade - including a presidential impeachment for corruption. And it took another eight years for a president - the immensely popular Lula, whom Obama revered as "the man" - to open the way for Dilma.
So the road was long until one of the most unequal countries in the world - ruled for centuries by an arrogant, rapacious elite who only had eyes for the wealthy North - finally enshrined social inclusion as essential to national politics.
The progress in Brazil was parallel to many other parts of South America...."
By Pepe Escobar
Al-Jazeera
".....These things take time
Egyptians may not know that it took Brazilians no less than 21 years to get rid of a military dictatorship. The unbreakable Dilma in the photo is the 1970s counterpart of the Google generation today fighting for democracy from Cairo to Manama, from Aleppo to eastern Saudi Arabia.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose - except a lot of time. In Brazil, real democracy was advancing just as it was smashed by the 1964 military coup - actively supervised by Washington. The coma lasted for a long two decades.
Then, in the 1980s, the military decided to dub their snail-pace "transition" towards democracy as "slow, gradual and secure" - secure for them, of course. But it was the street - Tahrir Square-style - that finally turbocharged it.
The strengthening of democratic institutions took over a decade - including a presidential impeachment for corruption. And it took another eight years for a president - the immensely popular Lula, whom Obama revered as "the man" - to open the way for Dilma.
So the road was long until one of the most unequal countries in the world - ruled for centuries by an arrogant, rapacious elite who only had eyes for the wealthy North - finally enshrined social inclusion as essential to national politics.
The progress in Brazil was parallel to many other parts of South America...."
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