Thursday, December 4, 2008

Let's Blame Chavez! Everybody Else Does . . .


Otto points out an article from the Economist that briefly explains the recent spate of protests that have affected life in Peru. The claim by the Peruvian government that perpetual bogeyman Hugo Chavez is funding various protest groups is fleetingly considered, then repudiated:
Certainly far-left activists can be found in the bigger disputes. But many of the conflicts are very local in nature, and it is hard to see them as forming part of a concerted attempt to undermine democracy or the market economy. They are getting more violent because people have seen that more can be squeezed from the government by throwing stones or setting fire to police stations than simply by marching through the streets, says Fernando Rospigliosi, a former interior minister.

All that with a 10% growth rate. What happens when the economy really starts to feel the effects of the worldwide economic sh*tstorm? (Not to mention a newly mobilized Shining Path.)

Longtime DS will remember my missives sent during a general strike and a roadblock earlier this year.

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