0:00

This week, something wonderful happened. Javier

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Mele, a libertarian conservative with a colorful

0:07

past and a penchant for video virality, won

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a stunning election victory in Argentina, a

0:12

country that has witnessed left wing financial

0:14

and economic mismanagement for decades. We

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can all hope Mele's election serves as the beginning

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of a backlash to the so-called pink

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wave. That pink wave isn't an iron

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wall, as it was with Soviet occupied Eastern

0:26

Europe. It is popularly elected leftist

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governments in South and Latin America that have

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increasingly pursued not only economic

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redistributionism and nationalism of

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industry, but outright tyranny and anti-Americanism.

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For all the American press's talk of creeping authoritarianism

0:40

across the globe, when it comes to America's southern

0:43

neighbors, the real threat is creeping socialism

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with its attendant record of poverty, human

0:48

rights abuses and threats to democracy.

0:56

One major player leading this charge is the

0:58

Sao Paulo Forum, or Foro de Sao

1:00

Paulo, FSP. Imagine

1:03

a group of right wing parties who got together each

1:05

year to plot international cooperation

1:07

with each other. That would be fodder for massive

1:09

media coverage, accusations of conspiracy.

1:12

But that's precisely what the FSP is.

1:15

The forum was created in response to the fall of the

1:17

Berlin Wall. It was an attempt to rebrand

1:19

socialism and communism for the new

1:21

age. Members of the FSP include

1:24

the current leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia,

1:27

Brazil, Chile, Colombia,

1:30

Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras,

1:33

Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama

1:36

and St. Lucia. Participants must

1:38

commit to willingness to renew leftist

1:41

and socialist thoughts to correct mistaken

1:43

conceptions and to reaffirm its emancipating

1:45

character. Countries with FSP

1:47

leadership have been dominated by corruption, slowed

1:50

economic growth and represent a pink tide

1:52

that threatens America's interests in our own hemisphere.

1:55

There's a history

1:56

and a pattern to that pink wave. The

1:58

first pink wave happened shortly. after the Cold

2:00

War. South and Latin America were predominantly

2:03

open to free market economics and more conservative

2:05

governance. But as with many countries

2:07

experiencing the rough transition from centralized

2:10

economics to free markets, the reaction

2:12

came quickly. In 1998, socialist

2:15

dictator Hugo Chavez was elected in Venezuela.

2:17

He quickly transformed one of the most prosperous

2:19

countries in the region, a country with massive

2:22

oil reserves, into a hellhole backwater

2:24

economically. Chavez's victory was

2:27

followed by Lula da Silva's in Brazil in 2003, and

2:30

Evo Morales's in Bolivia in 2006. They

2:33

were followed in their ascension by others, including

2:35

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina

2:37

in 2007. With the commodities

2:40

boom ending with the recession of 2007, 2008, and with the decline of China

2:43

as a global economic power, the pink tide ended

2:46

in electoral disaster. In 2015,

2:49

Kirchner's heir apparent was defeated by a center-right

2:51

opponent. Dilma Rousseff, Lula's

2:53

former chief of staff, was removed from office that same

2:55

year, impeached for corruption, and in 2018, Ayer

2:58

Bolsonaro won election in Brazil. Beginning

3:00

in 2018, however, with the rise of

3:03

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico, the

3:05

left struck back, ushering in a second

3:07

pink wave. In 2019, Argentinian

3:10

Peronist Alberto Fernandez took the

3:12

presidency. Luis Arce and

3:15

his movement for socialism dominated the 2020

3:17

Bolivian election. In 2021, Peru

3:20

elected socialist Pedro Castillo. Honduras

3:23

elected leftist Gio Mara Castro. And

3:25

in Chile, Gabrielle Borre won his election.

3:28

In 2022, leftist Gustavo

3:30

Petro, former Marxist guerrilla member and

3:32

Hugo Chavez Acolyte, became the first leftist

3:35

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3:37

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So what have the consequences of left

4:38

wing rule been in these countries? They've been

4:40

nothing short of disastrous. We

4:42

begin with Venezuela. Venezuela's GDP

4:45

dropped roughly three quarters between 2014 and 2021. Oil

4:49

output has dropped dramatically. Its debt

4:51

burden is at least one hundred fifty billion dollars. Hyperinflation

4:54

has set in. In 2018, inflation

4:56

was one hundred and thirty thousand percent

4:59

and remained at two hundred thirty four percent in 2022. Venezuelan

5:03

citizens have been forced to extremes to

5:05

survive, up to and including infamously

5:07

eating dogs in Caracas. This is

5:09

why more than seven million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela

5:11

since 2014. Brazil. In

5:14

the aftermath of Jair Bolsonaro's election, the

5:16

international media, largely left wing and orientation,

5:19

talked up the supposed risks of dictatorship. But

5:21

it was Lula, head of the corrupt Workers Party,

5:24

who had been convicted in 2017 of bribery and

5:26

money laundering. Later, the Supreme Court would

5:28

vacate the case on a technicality, although the charges

5:30

were never disproved. As Maria Anastasia

5:32

O'Grady writes in The Wall Street Journal, quote, During

5:35

the presidential campaign last year, Mr. De

5:37

Silva benefited from an electoral tribunal that

5:39

censored his critics. His new government will use

5:42

speech police to shut down what it judges to be fake

5:44

news and misinformation. Lula has

5:46

drawn closer to Iran and Russia and

5:48

Beijing has embraced Nicolás Maduro,

5:50

calling him my companero and a victim

5:52

of a narrative constructed against Venezuela.

5:56

Argentina leftism is destroying

5:58

Argentina's economy. Inflation is currently. running

6:00

at 140%. As O'Grady

6:02

writes, since Argentine inflation began

6:05

to take off again in 2007, total

6:07

money supply grew on average 30.7% every year

6:09

according to the Ministry of

6:11

the Economy, which is why in 2021,

6:14

the Frente de Todos lost power in Congress. It's

6:16

also why Javier Rile is now President of the United

6:19

States. Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez

6:21

Obrador, also known as AMLO, has attacked

6:23

formerly autonomous agencies, attacked

6:26

journalists by exposing their personal income data, violated

6:29

electoral laws, used his judicial branch to

6:31

prosecute his enemies. According to the

6:33

Economist Intelligence Unit, Mexico is no

6:35

longer a flawed democracy, it is now a hybrid

6:38

regime. Terese Acaria, no right

6:40

winger, labeled AMLO a populist demagogue

6:42

straight out of the worst pages of Latin American history.

6:45

Drug cartels control large swathes of the country,

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including huge border areas. Bolivia

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Luis Arce, the current President of Bolivia, has

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been trying to stave off the return of Evo Morales.

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This year, the police arrested Luis Camacho,

6:58

the right-wing governor of opposition area Santa Cruz.

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He was accused of attempting to launch a coup d'etat against

7:03

Morales, who had resigned in 2019 under

7:05

mass protests. According to the World Justice

7:07

Project's Rule of Law Index, Bolivia

7:10

ranks 139th on justice, just

7:12

ahead of Venezuela. Bolivia's debt problems

7:14

now force citizens to line up outside the central

7:16

bank to withdraw money. Gas production has

7:18

dropped as well. Colombia Gustavo

7:21

Petro is the first left-wing leader in Colombia in

7:24

over a generation. Petro is a fan of Venezuelan

7:26

ruler Nicolas Maduro. He actually endorsed Joe Biden

7:28

in 2020. He's a longtime critic of

7:30

capitalism. He says fossil fuels

7:33

lead to human extinction, which is strange given his state's

7:35

dependence on fossil fuels. Petro's

7:38

numbers are egregiously bad with his own population. 84%

7:40

believe security is getting

7:42

worse. 84% think the cost of

7:44

living is getting worse. 74% think corruption is getting

7:47

worse. His coalition is collapsing and

7:49

economic growth is down. Honduras.

7:52

Honduran President Gio-Maro Castro, the

7:54

wife of the former Honduran president, who was ousted

7:56

after he attempted to violate the law by centralizing

7:59

power in the state. has herself suspended constitutional

8:01

rights in some areas of the country, supposedly

8:03

in order to combat extortion from criminal gangs. The

8:06

head of the National Anti-Corruption Council has

8:08

been forced to flee the state in order to avoid threats.

8:11

According to Freedom House, institutional weakness,

8:14

corruption, violence, and impunity undermine

8:16

the overall stability of Honduras. Journalists,

8:18

political activists, and women are often the victims

8:21

of violence, and perpetrators aren't rarely brought to justice. Nicaragua

8:25

Nicaragua has been a de facto dictatorship since the rise

8:27

of Daniel Ortega in 2006. In 2020,

8:30

an uprising in Nicaragua was put down to bloody effects,

8:32

with 300 dead and 100,000 people fleeing. Ortega

8:35

is aligned with China and Russia and Iran. Nicaragua

8:38

is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

8:41

Chile

8:42

In March 2022, Gabriel Borich

8:44

took office as the first full leftist president since 1970.

8:48

He immediately sought to change the constitution in

8:50

dramatic ways, pushing a bevy of alterations,

8:52

including forced gender parity in government

8:54

offices, abolition of the Chilean Senate, universal healthcare,

8:57

and a bunch of other left-wing wish

8:59

list items. The constitution failed

9:01

by a 62% vote. This

9:03

forced Borich to fire six members of his cabinet and

9:05

move more toward the center-left. Rising

9:08

crime has also forced Borich to move to the right. Borich

9:10

has been relegated to attempting to nationalize its

9:12

lithium reserves in a foolish attempt to boost

9:15

its economy, and attempting to bribe

9:17

citizens with cash transfer payments. The

9:19

pink tide that has risen, receded, and

9:21

risen again will ultimately crash against the

9:23

rocks of reality as it has in the past.

9:26

Corruption and lack

9:27

of rule of law create the preconditions for

9:29

dissatisfaction with any government. The left-wing

9:31

governments in Latin and South America have channeled

9:33

that dissatisfaction into anti-democratic

9:36

centralization of power and impoverishment

9:38

of their own citizenry. It's well

9:40

beyond time for Latin Americans to recognize that

9:42

the true threat to their futures comes not from

9:44

the conservative right and free-market economics, but

9:47

from the would-be socialists who have consigned their

9:49

countries to underdevelopment and suffering. Mille's

9:51

election is one of the first steps in that understanding.

9:54

We should hope it isn't the last. you

10:30

you you