Latin democracy in statistics

A recent BBC World poll highlighted a problem which is prevalent in all parts of the world, but even more so here in Latin America: only 4% of the electorate trust their leaders (compared with the hardly inspiring average of 13% in other parts of the world) and only a third of voters think that elections in their country are free and fair.

More worringly, 9% of Latinos show more faith in military or police run states, which helps to explain the continent's colourful (sic) history. In Bolivia, Panama and the Dominican Republic, the majority trust religious leaders though interestingly this statistic is even higher in the States, which goes a long way to explaining Bush II's strangehold on power.

Mexico and my adopted country also exhibit the strongest nationalism (though most Bolivians openly admit that their football team is rubbish), which is probably not that surprising as they are also the two countries that have been subjected most to foreign domination on the continent.