Latin America is fast undergoing a leftist resurgence to the obvious discomfort of the U.S. Before the election of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1999, Cuba was the only Left-wing country in Latin America. Now comes the impressive electoral triumph of Evo Morales, who joked that he could not take Bolivia’s presidential oath unless Fidel Castro attended.Morales is the first member of Bolivia’s majority indigenous population to govern the country. It was followed in a few weeks by Michelle Bachelet - woman and free-thinking socialist - assuming the presidency in conservative Chile.



Little wonder, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, linked with Bolivia and Chile in seventies, is on way of resurgence among the restive Asian youth.



The current leftward surge is the product of two trends, coupled with each other. One is persistenty high levels of social and economic inequility in the region. Two, steady democratisation since the eighties.



The spark may lead to a wild fire in the restive Asian countries where in the absence of effective Leftist leadership, extremism and religious terrorism came to the fore.