Senkaku wrote:On the one hand, the few leftist movements that have held or contested power in parts of Latin America have killed some people.
The left-wing movements that have acquired power in Latin America, such as the government of Castro or the government of Calles, have engaged in purges or revolutionary policies that led to tens of thousands of deaths, putting them about on par with Pinochet or Videla in terms of raw death toll. Right-wing governments have simply won more of these political struggles, often due to American backing. Though there are also instances where the US backed liberals or progressives over their conservative or royalist opponents. There have also been instances of famine, economic collapse, and serious corruption among certain left-wing regimes. I would say it's fairly difficult to make sweeping statements about who is worse. It's perhaps more useful to discuss it on a country to country basis.
Senkaku wrote:On the other hand, the extractive colonial elites who've held the whip hand since the Spanish conquest have built their fortunes off the blood and sweat of millions and systematically underdeveloped their own countries for centuries, while collaborating with foreign fascists and imperialists and devastating their own societies' ecologies and indigenous cultures. Better equate them in the same breath without any examination!
You could literally be describing Chavez or Castro if you removed the bit about indigenous cultures, especially if you define people like Victoriano Huerta as "extractive colonial elites."
lol.