The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

20 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 6 espite two decades of democracy, political instability continues to haunt Latin America. In recent years, about a dozen elected presidents in the region have been forced from office amid widespread social unrest. In each case, constitutional succession procedures were followed. But the specter of one failed presiden- cy after another suggests something is radically wrong, particularly in the Andes. In Ecuador, for example, three recent elected presidents have been ousted, recalling the fate of Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, who won the presidency five times F O C U S O N L A T I N A M E R I C A P RESSURE G ROWS FOR C HANGE I N THE A MERICAS D T HE LEFT ’ S RECENT ADVANCES IN THE REGION COME EVEN AS MOST OF THE HEMISPHERE ’ S ECONOMIES ARE PERFORMING BETTER THAN THEY HAVE IN YEARS . B Y G EORGE G EDDA Elizabeth Lada