Norman Stockwell, publisher of The Progressive Magazine came into the studio and Marc Becker, professor of Latin American history at Truman State University in Missouri, joined us by phone to review recent Latin American elections.

They talked about last year’s and this year’s elections in South and Central American countries whose populations are looking for security amidst rising violence and crime. Candidates, left and right, who purport to be able to provide security and peace, approach the problem very differently.

Some, mostly on the right, want to govern with a heavy hand, using security forces, violence and prisons to lock up any threat but at the same time bringing fear and human rights violations to the populations they say they want to protect.

Others, mostly on the left, are advocating for negotiations and talk to find a way to coexist other than with the use of bullets and force.

Norm and Marc spoke about last year’s elections in Chile and Argentina, the February Costa Rican elections; Peru where election runoff results are not yet in and Colombia’s election last week where votes are still being counted and the election in Brazil in October.

Marc spends his time as a historian watching these elections as well as talking with colleagues and writing about them and he provides telling details from behind the scenes and about the personalities involved that give us a bit of an inside view of Latin American elections and politicians.

Norman Stockwell at The Progressive Magazine https://progressive.org/topics/norman-stockwell/

Marc Becker at Truman State University Kirksville, Missouri

https://www.truman.edu/faculty-staff/marc/

Website https://www.yachana.org/

Map courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division