Fernando Henrique Cardoso on Latin American development in Utrecht-The Netherlands

Politicians have friends and enemies and so does Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil between 1995 – 2003. But both friends and enemies have to admit that this former professor of the Universidade de São Paulo is able to give interesting lectures.

So did ‘FHC’ last Wednesday when he gave a lecture titled “Latin America: Democracy and Society at the Crossroads” in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The lecture was part of a series of lectures on governance and democracy in Latin America organised by the NGO Society for International Development and Utrecht University.

Cardoso gave a general vision on the proces of development in Latin America on the whole. All but one Latin-American countries are governed by democratically elected governments for two decades. Nevertheless, the democratic process is very vulnerable in most of these countries. According to Cardoso, Brazil is a model for sustainable economic development after the success of the Plano Real. This Plano Real was a set of measures taken to stabilise the Brazilian economy in the early 1990's when he was Brazil’s Minister of Finance. Cardoso called the process of privatisation during his terms as a president a necessary evil that was crucial to generate the funds needed to beat the hyperinflation and return to economic growth.

Yet, the privatisation has resulted in many protest votes all over Latin America as there is a gap between the ideology of the people and the need for privatisation. The election of the current Brazilian president Lula da Silvia in 2003 and the recent presidential elections of Evo Morales in Bolivia and Michelle Bachelet in Chile are consequences of this protesting electorate. However, Cardoso thinks it too early to draw conclusions about the effects of the election of Evo Morales: ‘my fear for the first mandate of Lula was not loosing power, but the destruction of the economic system that we created in the previous decade. However, Lula is continuing the economic policy of my administration. Let’s wait and see what Morales does before we draw any conclusions. And let’s give him some time too to adapt to his new job’.