Bloggings by boz

Three quotes from yesterday's meeting at the Inter-American Dialogue.

It's absurd to criticize us for harming democratic institutionality. There were no democratic institutions for the past decade.... We're building things from scratch.
-María Paula Romo, recently elected as a member of the National Assembly in Ecuador from the Movimiento PAIS party

Romo's presentation focused largely on the conditions that led to Correa's rise to power, starting with the economic collapse in 1999 and the inability for Ecuador's institutions to maintain democratic stability since that time. She made a case that the institutions that were in place when Correa was elected were from a corrupt elite and that her party was not dismantling democratic institutions but rather trying to build them from scratch.

[In terms of winning support,] Chavez's best friends were the opposition, oil and Bush. The game has now changed.
-Michael Penfold, associate professor of public policy at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración in Venezuela

Penfold made a case that the opposition in Venezuela has changed from the mistakes they made early in Chavez's term to a more democratic and successful group today. He said Chavez remains popular and Chavistas are in the majority, but that the opposition should have a significant minority role to play in the country in the local positions they won last year and in the legislature after the next election. A main criticism he had of Chavez was that the president appears to be denying the opposition even a minority leadership role by taking away local powers and persecuting certain local officials.

Everyone is against reelection except for the electorate.
-Rodrigo Pardo, editor of the Colombian newsmagazine Cambio and a former foreign minister

I love that quote. Pardo was asked why it seems so many key people are against reelection, but it still has support and will likely pass. Pardo answered that many (most) academics, journalists and politicians are against reelection for a whole variety of institutional reasons, but the Colombian population as a whole wants to see a continuation of Uribe's policies and leadership, particularly in the area of security. In spite of disapproval by many elites in Colombia, it's hard for them politically to be seen opposing Uribe's policies.