Obama says: “Democracy delivers both freedom and opportunity to its people”

I found the subject of this article very relevant to the part of the course we are at now. It talks about Obama visiting Brazil and naming it a model for the Middle East.

I found pretty ironic that Obama chooses Latin America and Brazil to say that “democracy delivers both freedom and opportunity to its  people” as it is the region that let arose the notion of “illiberal democracies”. Latin America is therefore the region that exemplifies the fact that electoral democracies do not always equal civil liberties.

I know and acknowledge that the situation in Brazil has improved a lot but as the Freedom House country report states:

• Brazil has one of the highest homicide rates in the world
• Brazil’s police are among the world’s most violent and corrupt
• Afro-Brazilians earn less than 50 % of the average earning of other citizens, and they suffer from the highest homicide, poverty, and illiteracy rates
• Rural laborers still work under slavery-like conditions
• etc.

Despite that, Obama says “The people of Brazil should know the future has arrived. It is here now.” It seems that the future has arrived not because of an improvement of democracy but more because of a great economic performance.

Therefore I don’t really know if Brazil is a good example of democracy delivering both freedom and opportunity to its people, or more an example of economic growth delivering the possibility of becoming a trade partner of the U.S.