U.S. journalists and commentators have helped popularize the image of two distinct Latin American lefts: a “bad” left that is politically authoritarian and economically erratic and a “good” left that is democratic and committed to free-market economics. This binary image oversimplifies the Latin American left in three ways: by overstating the contrast between the two alleged camps, by ignoring complex realities within each camp, and by exaggerating the failings of the so-called bad-left governments. The distinction makes sense, however, as a strategy for countering the rise of independent left-leaning governments in Latin America. Binary characterizations of subordinate peoples reflect a common discursive response to popular resistance on the part of imperial interests and one with many precedents in the history of U.S.–Latin American relations. Widespread U.S. media adherence to the good-left/bad-left thesis is explicable given this context and given the historic and continuing dependence of the press on state and corporate interests.
Periodistas y comentaristas norteamericanos han contribuido a la popularización de la imagen de dos izquierdas en América Latina: una “mala” izquierda, la cual es políticamente autoritaria y económicamente errática, y una “buena” izquierda, la cual es democrática y comprometida con la economía de libre mercado. Esta imagen binaria simplifica demasiado la izquierda latinoamericana en tres formas: exagera el contraste entre lo que se alega sean dos campos; ignora realidades complejas dentro de cada campo; y exagera las fallas de los gobiernos de la llamada mala izquierda. Sin embargo, la distinción tiene sentido vista como una estrategia para contrarrestar la emergencia de gobiernos independientes de izquierda en América Latina. Las caracterizaciones binarias de los pueblos subordinados reflejan una respuesta discursiva común de parte de intereses imperiales a la resistencia popular y uno con muchos precedentes históricos en las relaciones entre los EE.UU. y Latinoamérica. La extensa adhesión de los medios norteamericanos a la tesis de buena-izquierda/mala-izquierda se puede explicar dado este contexto y dada la histórica y continua dependencia de la prensa de los intereses del Estado y las corporaciones.
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