Alvaro Vargas Llosa escreve:

"In Latin America, one can speak of a “vegetarian left” and a “carnivorous left.” The vegetarian left is represented by leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. Despite the occasional meaty rhetoric, these leaders have avoided the mistakes of the old left, such as raucous confrontations with the developed world and monetary and fiscal profligacy. They have settled into social-democratic conformity and are proving unwilling to engage in major reform—which is why Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is not expected to top 3.6 percent this year—but they signify a positive development in the struggle for modernizing the left.
By contrast, the “carnivorous” left is represented by Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. They cling to a Marxist view of society and a Cold War mentality that separates North from South, and they seek to exploit ethnic tensions, particularly in the Andean region. The oil windfall obtained by Hugo Chávez is funding a great deal of this efforts."

Leia todo o artigo aqui. Eu concordo com a visão geral do Vargas Llosa Jr. Entretanto, o que ele esquece é que também existe na América Latina uma direita carnívora e vegetariana também. A escolha é muitas vezes entre um governo ridículo e populista de esquerda; ou uma elegante, plutocrata e corrupto de direita.Bom governo raramente é uma alternativa. Assim, o custo de oportunidade de ter um Evo ou um Chávez no poder é menor do que aparenta à primeira vista. Esse é o longo pesadelo da América Latina.