But, Lisa, yes, I would argue also that there is a successful third way in Latin America. In the nineties, most people thought that the left in Latin America was dead, i.e., limited to utopian projects and to the sort of dictatorships that we see today in Venezuela. Today, and more and more, this sort of modern left is seen as a good alternative.

And I have to agree with you as well: dictators from Stalin to Hitler to Kim Il sung –to Sulla, in Rome– have had popular support. I am not happy to say this but the truth uis that, being Peruvian, I have learnt to live with the uncomfortable idea that murderers and thieves will be defended by regular folk, and by the church, and by the media, often eagerly so, even by those whose lives suffered the most.

One thing we should all do, as human beings, is never argue for despots who happened— sometimes as a by-product— to do one or two good things for a country. There is no doubt that no matter what the situation in Peru, Fujimori should not be returned to power or in any way vindicated. Say the same about Pinochet in Chile (though we know that he had a lot of popular support). I say the same about much of American government—- what we did in Iraq. I think Cheney and Bush are war criminals. What Kissinger did in South America, war criminal. I believe, as Hitchens points out in the beginning of his book on Kissinger, that Americans cannot yet think this way (are we too young)—- we have a hard time balancing or believing that someone with power, considered legitimate by the majority, may be a criminal. Most people in most places across the globe have no problem with that notion. I do not believe that this is because we are less corrupt—- and I need to stop here, because I will end up saying what I often think— we are an imperialist country with imperialist blood on our hands. And we cannot be anything like a true democracy because we are a (flailing) empire. And never the twain shall meet.