BY JUAN VíCTOR FAJARDO

In print | Published September 4, 2008

The direct translation of “Cambur Pintón” from Spanish to English is: “Almost ripe banana.” Yes, there is a term for this.

Coincidentally, it is also a phrase that one uses when tuning a Venezuelan four-string guitar called “el cuatro” (literally, the four). When sung in the right key, cam-bur-pin-ton should provide the necessary notes for tuning each one of the four strings respectively. I thought it would be appropriate to give this column that title since what I hope to accomplish through this space is to provide a look at Latin America from within. More concretely, the goal of this column is to digest and present to the student body and readers of The Phoenix the most interesting and controversial current events in Latin American politics. Ideally this will both inform and spark interest in what I consider to be a very pivotal time for Latin America politically and socially speaking.

A brief background of how things stand:
As of 1998 Venezuela has undergone deep structural changes under the Bolivarian Revolution. Nonetheless, it is not the only radical political movement in Latin America today. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, former leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, is currently leading a revolutionary process much like the revolution in Venezuela. Evo Morales, in Bolivia, is the first indigenous president since the Spanish conquest. He was the leader of the cocalero movement, played a central role in the gas protests in Cochabamba and is spearheading a socialist revolution.

Rafael Correa is a young president educated abroad and has also put forth a socialist project in Ecuador much like the one in Venezuela. Ex-bishop Fernando Lugo was recently elected president of Paraguay. His first decree was to give up his salary in the name of those “who need it more than he does.” The heads of states in Argentina and Chile are women who defy the region’s widespread patriarchal tradition and propose new visions for the continent. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, is the leader of the worker’s party and has a prominent presence in the region. Colombia and Peru, with Alvaro Uribe and Alan Garcia respectively, currently live under rightist regimes.

In December of last year I contributed to a Phoenix issue in the hopes of communicating to the college what was, and still is, Hugo Chavez’s only democratic defeat since 1998. At the time, Venezuelans had been asked whether or not they supported a radical constitutional reform put forth by President Chavez. It included a total of 69 changes to articles in the current constitution (written by Chavez himself in 1999) among which the following two stood out: an extension of the presidential term from five to seven years as well as the possibility of immediate and indefinite reelection, and the dilution of the Central Bank’s autonomy from the branches of government.

As some of you many know, the reform was not approved by popular vote and therefore did not pass. Since then, many things have happened in Venezuela and in Latin America. Among these one could underline the fact that the head of the FARC (a prominent guerilla group in Colombia) died unexpectedly, the opposition in Bolivia has gained important political ground, former presidential candidate and hostage Ingrid Betancourt was freed in a Hollywoodesque rescue mission orchestrated by the Colombian government and in Cuba, Raul Castro assumed the reigns of power.

As Venezuela prepares itself for regional elections in November, the Venezuelan head of state has proposed a so- called “packet” of 26 laws to be presented to the National Assembly. Strikingly enough, most of the constitutional changes that were proposed in December are now “camouflaged”, so to speak, in the 26 laws. Politically speaking, it must be mentioned that Chávez counts with an approval rate of over 90 percent in the National Assembly. In other words, it seems to be the case that the Chávez administration is trying to pass a series of changes in Venezuela’s legislative texts via the National Assembly that failed by way of popular vote. This, of course, is unconstitutional.

How and why the head of state of a nation can propose and intend to go through with a motion that is explicitly unconstitutional may put the political reality of Latin America, and Venezuela specifically, in context. If anything, that is precisely what I hope to do in this space: put current political developments in context. I hope you will join and contact me with any topics that interest you specifically.

Juan Victor is a senior. He can be reached at jfajard1@swarthmore.edu.

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