Comment by compay | Hacker News Reader

Comment by compay | Hacker News Reader

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Just curious, what's your experience living or traveling in Latin America? Have you seen or experienced this widespread hatred first hand?

I obviously don't deny that the USA committed terrible abuses in Latin America, but I have yet to see the widespread resentment you speak of; not everybody walks around with a copy of The Open Veins in their pocket down here. Latin Americans can be as ignorant or apathetic of history as anybody in the USA.

I am not a Chavez supporter, but the claim that he or many Venezuelans "hate the USA" lacks nuance to say the least. If that were the case, Johann Santana would be reviled as a traitor for playing baseball in the USA, rather then being received by Chavez as a hero.

I wouldn't call it widespread hatred. I certainly didn't see any evidence of hatred towards individual Americans. It's more a widespread opinion that the United States is at best questionably moral. There are certainly many who think it is evil, and if you ask the average person on the street they'd probably have mostly negative feelings towards the US.

I haven't been to the Middle East, but I imagine the sentiment to be very similar. People have an odd way of resenting you when you back brutal dictators that kill thousands of civilians.

I asked if you have lived in or traveled in Latin America, but you didn't answer me. Does that mean you have not actually been here?

I ask you because I do, in fact, live in Latin America and my experience has not been what you describe.

> People have an odd way of resenting you when you back brutal dictators

Actually people tend to first resent the brutal dictators themselves. The person paying the hit man isn't usually as hated as the guy who actually stuck a gun in your face.

I've spent time in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. I never claimed Latin Americans blame the US for all the things that the juntas did, merely that there's a fairly strong undercurrent of resentment towards the US there.

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