Which way left?

Latin America | South and Central America have two lefts, one reconciled to free trade and one dominated by “throwbacks to the old school.” Elections this year will help determine which camp wins | Priya Abraham

In Venezuela's poorest barrios, numerous two-story clinics have cropped up where health care once barely existed. There, patients can get medical attention subsidized by the government: although most Cubans receive poor medical care, the BBC reports that Fidel Castro has sent 20,000 Cuban doctors to Venezuela. They are part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's multiple misiones, or populist social programs, fueled by oil dollars and loved by many of the downtrodden.

These programs make Chavez a popular leader, even as many middle- and upper-class Venezuelans dislike his political maneuvering. Powered by Venezuela's oil wealth, Chavez, Castro, and Bolivian President Evo Morales are hardening into a leftist Latin American bloc that opposes Washington.

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September 30, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 37

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