[Peace-discuss] A good letter in the N-G

[C. G. Estabrook]

[And, in a departure, it's not from David Green. --CGE]

News-Gazette
March 25, 2013

"Foreign columnist has an ax to grind"

Argentine Andreas Oppenheimer, a Miami Herald opinion writer and determined advocate for U.S. style neoliberal economic policies for Latin America, speculated in a recent column on the new pope's effect on Latin American leaders.

Besides the fact that he seems to have an ax to grind with the Argentine president, the comparison of Francis to John Paul II's effect in Eastern Europe in the '80s is specious.  

The difference is that the governments of the then sclerotic Soviet bloc countries were highly unpopular with their people, while the governments Oppenheimer has a grudge against are actually very popular.

All that foolishness, however, pales in comparison to the headline, which reads "Pope Francis may threaten Latin America's dictators." My first thought was, "what dictators?" Scanning the article reveals only mentions of Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia. None of these is a dictatorship. All are democracies, with leaders democratically elected in internationally verified free and fair elections.

Of course, all of them are left-leaning democracies, which may mean the same thing as dictatorship to the Gazette editorial page, but most fair-minded persons would not agree.

STUART TARR
Urbana