<Editorial>
Turn the Bums Out
After a few near misses in different Latin American countries, voters finally turned out the traditional political parties in Venezuela, the subject of this month's cover story, electing outsider Hugo Chavez as president.
Chavez, who took office last month, is facing a host of problems. He may turn out to be just as bad as the two parties that had governed Venezuela for the past 40 years -- Copei or Democratic Action (AD) -- or worse, but clearly the message for entrenched political bosses across the region is the same: pay attention to the electorate or receive the bums' rush.
Colombians spread the word to Conservatives and Liberals alike last year with a quarter of the vote going to independent presidential candidate Noemi Sanin. Graciela Fernandez Meijide, another anti-establishment crusader, sent a shot over the bow of Argentina's traditional parties with a 36% showing in last year's presidential primaries. And Mexico's 70-year political dynasty, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), may come to an end in the 2000 presidential electiors; voters already have thrown out the PRI majority in Congress.
The platform that receives the most support in the region, and probably in most parts of the world, focuses on corruption, inadequate basic infrastructure and pocketbook issues. The thernes are not new, especially in countries like Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela but they are receiving increased attention because of brutal austerity programs.
Money is tight. Unethical public officials who steal or waste public funds are receiving an inordinate amount of press. Poor roads and schools beg the question: Where is all the money going? And the general lack of jobs is a political bombshell.
The challenge to the established powerbrokers is that the region's top politicians have sold economic reforms to the public based on the idea that tomorrow will be better. Tomonow is here, and the policies don't seem to be working.
How many more times should Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo or Brazilian President Fernaodo Henrique Cardoso be allowed to give the public an annual apology because the new order isn't working just yet without losing public support?
Contrary to what many pundits would say, the electorate is not dumb. Venezuelans elected Chavez not simply to dump austerity for short-term prosperity, but because the traditional political parties have failed: some 70% of the country's 23 million people live in poverty.
The landslide defeat for Venezuela's established parties should serve as a wakeup call to politicians across the region. As a colleague of mine likes to say, "No apologies, no excuses." If Zedillo and Cardoso cannot get the job done, voters should give their parties the heave-ho, too.
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