MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Populism incorporation to democratic politics is positive”

Latinamerican governance and the democratic exercise of government by those leaders freely elected are the main concerns of Washington and not necessarily the bouts of populism of recent years, said US Under-Secretary for Latinamerican Affairs Thomas Shannon.

What populism is showing "is the growing incorporation of these movements and political actors in Latinamerican democratic politics which is good", added Mr. Shannon who this Sunday is expected in La Paz for the taking office of Bolivian elected president Evo Morales.

"The great challenge for the countries in the region is governance, how democratically elected government can rule democratically, respect the constitution, independent justice, basic liberties and at the same time find resources to address the drastic social problems and regional economic development", indicated Mr. Shannon.

"Mr. Morales was elected in the first round and by 54% of the vote which is an extraordinary event; it's an event we must admit and respect and I hope we can find some common ground and convergence of interests".

Mr. Shannon argued that electing leaders such as Mr. Morales is "basically the result of domestic politics and reflect what's happening in each country?I don't believe they can be totally linked to actions from other countries".

The positive side of the populist wave is that "it's part of the successful democratization process of the Americas. The self considered anti system forces both from the right and the left which oppose the political process in their countries, are finally acknowledging that to play an important role in domestic politics they must participate in the electoral process".

Mr. Shannon also recalled that United States has had several episodes of populism in its political history with the most outstanding that of Andrew Jackson elected as the seventh president of United States in 1829.

However he emphasized that Latinamerican political parties have played a role in the appearance of populism. In some countries political parties have evolved with the natural dynamics of politics and "there are strong parties in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and other countries".

But in others they "did not keep open in time to dynamic communities which expand and change, lacking the vision to absorb movements that later became independent".

"In the current democratic system, political parties are no longer the comptrollers of political activities, they are the facilitators, the channels by which civil society has access to formal institutions and government, and for that to happen political parties must evolve on time", highlighted the US official.