Presidential elections are due this year in several Latin American countries which I have visited—among them Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia. What struck me in these countries is the considerable material progress of sometimes stunning proportions.
The progress made in Mexico and in Colombia in the last twenty years is mostly due to their political stability. The stability has been bought at a price: the sacrifice of democracy. The liberator of southern South America, General San Martín, believed that monarchy would be the only truly viable form of government for this part of the world. Brazil proved it and Mexico tried it twice. The first Mexican effort foundered due to conflicts within, the second one because it was a foreign imperial enterprise.
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