“Liberalism and democracy are the two sides of the same mouthpiece, and the latter needs to adapt and support the market rules established by capitalism.” The sociologist, political scientist and writer Atilio Borón (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1943) has been rigorous in a day organized by several initiatives in La Bolsa de Bilbao. This is the last work by Mario Vargas Llosa, The Call of the Tribe, born in Peru and resident in Spain for years, who has written criticizing the book The Spell of the Tribe. The book will reach Euskal Herria in the coming days.

First of all, he said that Vargas Llosa’s talent is immense. And he wanted to make it clear that he thinks so, but then he has thrown a few flowers at him. Ideologically, Vargas Llosa had a left-wing youth: He militated for years in the communist party of Peru, Cahuide. “Another on the left who over the years has gone to the right,” added Borón. In the historical world, many have skimmed from Marxism to the other end, such as Lucio Colletti, who would later become Berlusconi’s friend, and the French Régis Debray, who moved away and moved away from Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara. Both the two, as well as the other members of the list to which Boron refers, have held high office and have had coveted lives once they have passed into the capitalist world. “At maturity, why have many intelligent revolutionaries gone to the right?” asks Borón, but he does not justify it.

He has given two keys to understanding Vargas Llosa's change of ideological mindset. Of course, the most important thing is Margaret Thatcher's interview in 1990. The main reference point for liberalism at the time of the end of office, with the international success of significant economic and political developments in Britain. A similar thing happened to him with Ronald Reagan, who were the two responsible for the liberal bloom that took place in the last years of the Soviet Union.

 

 

 

 

Adam Smith and his figure

Among the authors analyzed by Vargas Llosa, the most criticized story is that of English Adam Smith: “It’s a figure that has been created and is now sold as Adam Smith.” Recalling his publication The Wealth of nations, Smith has referred to the concept of “invisible hand”, which adapts to the wishes of neoliberal hegemony, but is not, in general, the main key defining Smith’s thinking. “Garai (XVIII. 15th century) was in fact a philosopher of the great progressives, not an economist. He did a crude analysis of reality and spoke of injustice; he denounced that the organization of workers was forbidden and that the organization of employers was not,” says Atilio Borón.

In Smith's book, it is clear that the state must intervene. For example, it is not fair for citizens to negotiate directly with private banks, which have total control over us. Borón has repeatedly regretted that it is still not possible to show in the centres this figurative image of Smith.

Within the American Dream

The continuous search for the white race, for man and for precious wealth is on the rise. To such an extent that Donald Trump came to power. “Trump has succeeded in bringing the middle class together,” Boron said. And he says that it causes collateral damage to the citizens of this globalized world. Pain thus defines the impact of the American dream on the world: “A wage distribution between employers and workers is not possible: In 1980, entrepreneurs gained 40 times more, and today, 340 times more.”

That has also affected culture. In South America, there are many who choose to go to the United States and have a better life, will they live better there? Everything we consume with media dyes happens in the same place, and that's our center. Everything was so close but at the same time so far away: “If a non-white race family travels to the EE.UU, life must start at nothing; there they are people of a lower level.”

“Mature, dictator?”

“How will the dictator Nicolás Maduro be? See what they say, if not 6 million Venezuelans, because almost every 2 weeks they give them free food.”

Unlike talking about the book, it's been freer to answer questions from the public. Atilio Borón also referred to the mass media and made it clear: "The big media does not intend to report, they have long lost it. If you want to know about Venezuela, don't read it at all El País: Maduro will only teach you the dark side of the country that governs.”

He has also spoken with the Spaniards Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez to explain to what extent the similarity of the mentalities of power has led them. “That doesn’t happen to me: those of us who have an anti-capitalist vision don’t offer the camera and the microphone,” he added.

Current Mexico on the Left

During the 36-year dictatorship, the Central American country experienced remarkable economic growth. They made huge investments in science and technology, and it seemed that, according to Boron, he was going to go forward. However, after the terrible years of the 1920s in the domestic economy, drug trafficking triumphed in Mexico, and it continues to do so -- a third of the population has to do with drug trafficking.

Now they have a new head of state, López Obrador, and although he's left-wing, Atilio Borón doesn't think he can change things a lot. “It’s on top of a tsunami, you’ll have to be careful; twice you’ll think about whether to make a decision or not.” It will have many adversaries: the currency, corruption, the weakened primary sector in recent years, and above all, EE.UU. Borón has been convinced that he will have them monitored with complete rigidity, as it is a threat to Americans to have so close to the left.