Here's today's front page of Peru's daily national, "La Republica". The top photo shows the celebrations in Santa Cruz last night. The bottom photo was taken at the march in La Paz /El Alto yesterday that protested the unofficial referendum.

But of course it's not about race....of course not. Whatever made you think that?

 

In my mailbag today, I got a message from A. Person, who was pretty horrified that I called the people of Santa Cruz racist, and for good measure I was told how communist I am. All I can say to that is "wrong". Race seems to be a touchy subject right now, what with a US presidential race with an afro-american as (slight) favourite for the job as i write this. And plain and brutal as it might look in print, the people of Santa cruz have long had really nasty racist views. One thing particularly abhorrent about this publilc showing of supermacy is the way their leaders have jumped on the Morales presidency to polarize these views amongst its population, and thereby making its push for its long dreamed-of autonomy.

As for labelling people commie or fascist or any point in between, that simple doesn't work round here unless you understand the more subtle nuances of LatAm politics. This was driven home to me today, when somebody pointed out to me that Peru's growth of the last 5 years has puched GDP per capita to around U$4,000. All very well, but the US GDP/cap stands at U$46,000, and 42% of Peruvians are members of families that earn less than U$1,000 per year (yep...that says year). When you're poor like that, the way you vote makes little difference.

On a lighter note, another mail asked me to put together a list of all ADRs in Latin America...yeah, I can do that, FR. There are quite a few, and there are also quite a few fully exposed US stoks to add in to the list perhaps (examples PCU, SIL), so maybe cutting it into a few country-by-country posys would be wise. Gimme a few days on that project.