Colombian novel “The night will be long” by Santiago Gamboa”

“The night will be long” (sera largo la noche) is a story about the rise of evangelical churches in Colombia and Latin America.  

Fabinho Henriquez, a poor orphan from Minas Gerais state of Brazil, becomes a mining entrepreneur in Amazon. He establishes an evangelical church celebrating his own miraculous transformation and to give moral support to other poor souls living and working in the jungles. He gets a Colombian business partner Fritz Almayer, who had escaped to Brazilian amazon after harassment, extortion and threat from FARC guerillas in Colombia. The Colombian steals the money and wife of Henriquez and runs back to his country and starts his own evangelical group. The Brazilian pastor tries to kill the Colombian. Investigation of this assassination attempt by Colombian authorities and a journalist is the main narrative in the novel. 
 

Gamboa has narrated the emergence of evangelical faith in the context of Colombia’s background of FARC guerillas, paramilitaries, drug trafficking, violence and crime. He has focused on the post-Peace Accord times of rehabilitation of ex-guerillas and victims of the violence. He describes in detail the way the evangelical churches operate. The Brazilian and Colombian pastors in the novel are themselves children of poverty and violence and had suffered the worst. They are naturally able to relate to the struggles of the poor masses and the victims of violence. This is in contrast to the Catholic clergy most of whom are out of touch with the reality of the poor and marginalized. 
 
The evangelical pastors exploit the believers by making them share a portion of their income as tithe. They use the churches for money laundering, making use of their privileged exemption from taxes and accountability. They network with the rich and powerful for mutual enrichment and gains. They have their own TV networks and other business ventures. Politicians provide protection to the pastors who return the favour with votes of their followers. The pro-evangelical politicians promote the agenda of the pastors in legislatures and governments. 
 
Latin America used to be the largest catholic region and Brazil was the largest catholic country in the world. But in the last five decades, millions of Catholics have  joined the Evangelical churchess. In Brazil, the number of Pentecostals have increased to 46.7 million in 2020 (out of the total population of 210 million) from 6.8 million in in 1970. In the same period, Guatemala saw the Pentecostal strength reaching 2.9 million from 196,000.  Seven countries in the region including Uruguay, the Dominican republic and the five in Central America have non-Catholics in the majority.
 
This is the third novel of Gamboa I have read. The first two were: “ Return to the dark valley” and “ Night Prayers”. I like his profound analysis of the social and political issues of Colombia while narrating stories of murders and investigations filled with suspense, thrill and mystery. 
 
 

Chile’s millennial President-elect Gabriel Boric lives up to his promise of empowerment of women

Gabriel Boric, President-elect of Chile, has announced a cabinet with women in majority. He has given 14 cabinet posts to women out of the total 24.

Boric, the youngest to become president at the age of 35, has chosen a young, inclusive and progressive team. The average age of the cabinet is 49.

He has made Allende’s granddaughter Maya Fernandez Allende as Defence Minister. This is the best way of paying tribute to the leftist president Salvador Allende who was overthrown by the rightist military in 1973. This is poetic justice. She will initiate reforms in the Chilean military which has been enjoying sweet heart deals and privileges inherited from the dictatorship-era. Maya Fernandez’s family lived in exile in Cuba after the Chilean military coup and she returned to Chile in 1990. Her father was a Cuban diplomat.

The new Interior Minister is another woman Izkia Siches, ex-militant leader of Communist Party. She will oversee the police which used high handed methods against the student protestors.

The communist party firebrand and student protest leader Camila Vallejo (age 33) will be the spokesperson of the government. She was president of the University of Chile Student Federation and the main spokesperson of the Confederation of Chilean Students. Described as "the world's most glamorous revolutionary" by New York Times, she became an iconic figure in Latin America. Vallejo's father and mother were members of the Communist Party.

Camila Vallejo was a rival to Gabriel Boric in the student movement. She had lost a student union election to Boric.

Boric has chosen the 62 year- old Central Bank chief and socialist leader Mario Marcel as finance minister. This has given the right message and reassurance that he would not do anything drastic to upend the macroeconomic fundamentals of the country.

Boric’s choice of women majority in the cabinet complements the gender parity of the Chilean Constitutional Assembly which has fifty percent women, the first of its kind in the world history to have such gender parity. It has 78 men and 77 women. The first president of the Assembly was a woman Elisa Loncon, member of the indigenous Mapuche group. She has now been replaced by another woman Maria Elisa Quinteros.

Camila Vallejo..in the picture..

Latin America projected to grow by 2 percent in 2022

Latin America’s GDP is forecast to increase by 2% in 2022, according to the 12 January report of ECLAC ( UN Commission for Latin America and Caribbean). The region had grown by 6.25 in 2021 after the disastrous GDP contraction of 6.8% in 2020 and zero growth in 2019.
 
In 2022, Brazil is predicted to grow by 0.5%, Mexico by 2.9%, Argentina by 2.2%, Colombia by 3.7%, Peru by 3%, Chile by 1.9% and Central America by 4.5%. 
 
The most pleasant surprise is Venezuela which is projected to grow by 3%. The country’s GDP had contracted successively since 2014. 
 
Another welcome news..Venezuela’s inflation had come down 1946% in 2021 from 130060% in 2018. 
 
Argentina’s inflation had gone up to 51% in 2021 from 34.1% in 2020 but down from the 52.9 % in 2019. Brazil’s inflation was 10.2% in 2021.
 
The region’s exports had increased to 1.212 trillion dollars in 2021 from 958 billion in 2020. Imports had also gone up to 1.145 trillion from 885 bn in 2020. 
 
More info in ECLAC report https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/47670/3/S2100697_en.pdf
 

Argentine-Swiss film "Azor"

The film “Azor” brings out vividly the sharp contrast between the cultures of the discreet and self-effacing Swiss private bankers and their Argentine clients who show off their wealth with pompous and pretentious talk. While the Swiss speak politely and properly, the Argentines revel in their unrestrained use of colorful abusive expressions with typical words such as ‘ Boludos’ and ‘Pelotudos’, which means fools.
 
In fact, the title of the film ‘Azor’ means ‘be quiet’ and ‘ be careful about what you say’ in the local dialect and code of the private bankers community. The Argentine characters brag loudly with exuberant eloquence while the Swiss listen to them passively but attentively and open their mouth only to prod the Argentines to continue their talk. When the Argentine client asks the Swiss banker about the size of his Swiss estate, the banker replies humbly, " my estate is like a little kitchen garden vis-a-vis your large farm of several thousands of hectares"

 
The Argentine oligarchies’ need to transfer their black money into secret Swiss accounts becomes more desperate at the time of the military dictatorship in the seventies. The Colonels make not only the leftists and their sympathisers ‘disappear’ but they also expropriate the assets (including race horses) of the oligarchic families. The Swiss banker is eager to facilitate the hiding of the illegal money of the Colonels also. 

Keeping black money outside the country is part of the Argentine culture. My golf buddies from the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires say that they need to do this for survival because of the volatility of Argentine economy, fluctuations in exchange rates, frequent changes in policies and periodic financial crises. During crisis times, the government freezes bank accounts and imposes foreign exchange restrictions. It happened in 2002. Currently the country is facing a debt crisis with over 50 billion dollars of payment due to IMF and other external creditors. The Argentine peso which was equal to dollar in value in the nineties has now depreciated to 103 pesos to a dollar. But in the black market, a dollar fetches over 200 pesos.
 
The story is about a Swiss private banker from Geneva who goes to Buenos Aires to reassure his clients after the disappearance of his partner who was dealing with their accounts. His meetings, conversations and deals are discreet in the typical Swiss way. He takes his wife also for the trip and includes her in his social interactions so that she can interact with the Argentine women and give feedback on the inner details of the families. The banker and his wife navigate carefully between the Argentines expressing frustrations with the excesses of military dictatorship as well as those defending the regime publicly.
 
All the actions take place in Buenos Aires, the elegant city of cafes, bars, clubs, gardens, parks and mansions. The Swiss banker is invited to the Circulo de Armas, an exclusive club of oligarchs with its own quaint protocols and secret dealings between members which include oligarchs and military officials and even the upper echelons of the clergy. An Argentine priest with ill gotten money meets the Swiss Banker and seeks his help for investment of his money in foreign exchange and stock trading. The banker is invited to the country house of a client, who shows off his wealth but is depressed since his leftist daughter has been made to ‘disappear’ by the military dictatorship. The banker is given entry into the gentlemen-only private box of a client at the San Isidro Race Club. The Swiss ambassador in Buenos Aires facilitates the work of his country’s bankers by introducing them to the city’s elite through parties and receptions.
 
The Argentines remind the Swiss banker that Geneva was the favourite city of Jorge Luis Borges, the famous Argentine writer. Borges had studied in College de Geneva and dedicated his final work “Conspirators” to the city of Geneva. Borges spent his final years in Geneva where he died. It is a pity that Borges missed his Nobel Prize since he was seen as a supporter of the Argentine military dictatorship.
 
The film, released in March 2021, is not sensational or packed with action. It is slow and subtle. But it is filled with suspense, tension and mystery arising from the terrible time of the military dictatorship of the late seventies and early eighties. It lets the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the way Argentina and Switzerland have found their current destinies with their contrasting cultural traits. The director of the film Andreas Fontana is a Swiss who had lived in Buenos Aires. He has succeeded in painting a portrait of the colorful Argentine character using a simple Swiss brush...