MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Margaret Thatcher, an Iron legacy for Latin America

Three possible reasons that help understand part of Latam’s attitude towards Lady Thatcher

By Rafael Rincon - The following piece tries to explain how Lady Thatcher was seen in Latin America and the reactions her death has triggered in the region. ‘An Iron legacy’ was written by Chilean commentator Rafael Rincon, an expert in international relations and strategy and also linked to the oil industry.

Rincón begins by recalling how the term Iron Lady was born: January 1976, a young Soviet solider Yuri Gavrilov was working for the Red Star, the Red Army’s newspaper and obviously had in mind the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. And in effect it was the right choice because Lady Thatcher was very much in line with feminism, confirmed by Paul Johnson in his book Heroes, and in her days of male supremacy in politics, she never ceased to be the woman she was, much less try to emulate her masculine peers.

Rincon argues that Lady Thatcher is not much understood in Latinamerica or is the role she played in the last quarter of the XXth century. That seems to be the trend as the region keeps advancing toward the political left where the brilliance of the former Prime minister unfairly dims out.

Rincon attempts to understand this process and proposes three possible reasons for the lack of acknowledgement to the figure of Lady Thatcher in the region.

The former PM is associated in Latam to three main events: the Falklands’ war with Argentina; her key role, sword in hand in fighting Socialism and the former Soviet Union and more specifically in Chile her very close and grateful relation with General Augusto Pinochet.

The 1982 Thatcher that defended British interests in the Falklands represents in much of Latam something like the last coup and victory of ‘British colonialism’, the British lion crowned in the South Atlantic, the lash that sank the Belgrano and recovered British sovereignty over the disputed South Atlantic islands.

“What was the alternative, that a vulgar garden dictator was to rule over Her Majesty’s subjects, and fraud and violence prevail? No way while I’m Prime minister” she wrote in her memoirs.

In the Argentine recollection this is marked with fire and humiliation, and is present for many Latinamericans at times, overflowing with courage and pride when defying empires and world powers.

The other Margaret Thatcher is that who fought Socialism and was part, as Paul Johnson describes it, “the heroic trinity that tamed the bear”, next to Ronald Reagan and a Pole, Karol Wojtyla turned Pope John Paul II. And not forgetting Mikhail Gorbachov who the Iron Lady admitted, “I like Mr Gorbachov. We can do business together”.

The fact is Lady Thatcher abhorred Socialism in all its forms and with her soul, and obviously all Socialists. She fought against them, the Communists with all her passion. She did not waste a second or chance to tackle with her demolishing will the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Kremlin and any hammer and sickle that came across her.

Likewise she was promoter and heroine of what in the derogatory slang of the Latam left rhetoric is called ‘neo-liberalism’ something like the worst of plagues to have landed in the region.

Lady Thatcher cut the wings of the UK trade unions, with exceptional courage adopted very unpopular liberal economic measures that finally, as was mentioned by PM David Cameron saved the United Kingdom from ruin and collapse. In this battle it must be mentioned the contribution displayed by the Institute of Economic Affairs helping to create a state of public opinion favourable to the necessary reforms, and a lesson for so many think-tanks dedicated to promote political and economic freedoms.

Finally in Chile mainly for the left half of the country, Lady Thatcher was the “friend, defender and accomplice” of the late dictator. It was clear that the Lady had a special consideration for General Pinochet for two very good reasons. First, because of the help extended which saved ‘British lives’ during the conflict with Argentina.

Secondly, thankful for Pinochet’s efforts in the implementation of the same economic freedom ideas that she so convincingly defended and promoted. But Thatcher also understood that the role of the General was a sort of temporary, short-lived need to restore democracy and freedoms in Chile. And that is how the Lady made it clear when she visited Pinochet retained in London in 1999. Margaret Thatcher was a strong believer in liberty, in a society of free individuals and that was in her blood.

However the legacy of Lady Thatcher in Latam is far more that the three points mentioned above, mere events if we think on how the ‘heroic trinity’ confronted Socialism and the Soviet Union setting the timetable for its final decline. And the Soviet collapse changed the world order and influenced greatly in Latam opening the way for the consolidation of freedoms and democracy.

Rincon, obviously a fan of the Lady, concludes saying that figures like Margaret Thatcher rarely emerge on the world stage. Her detractors thought the ‘Iron Lady’ was referred to her stubbornness as an unbearable defect.

“Me, the Iron Lady of the West? A soldier of the Cold War? Well, yes if that is how you wish to interpret my defence of the values and fundamental freedoms of our way of life”. A pending lesson for the current political leaders of Latam underlines Rincon.