‘It’s Like Stockholm Syndrome’: Gloria Álvarez Is Trying To Save Latin America From Socialism

There’s a socialist wave in Latin America. Mexico, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil recently elected leftists.

These politicians at least distance themselves from thugs like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, but all propose socialism-lite policies giving government more control over more people.

Why don’t people in Latin America learn from the mistakes of the past? Gloria Álvarez, a social media star from Guatemala, is running for president of her country to try to educate people about the damage socialism does.

People do need educating.

“It’s like Stockholm syndrome,” says Álvarez in my new video. “When you ask people, ‘Who should take care of health, education, football, arts, whatever?’ They always answer, ‘government.’ How are you going to not have corruption if you leave everything in the hands of the government?”

Álvarez’s campaign is based on social media. Her TikTok announcing her campaign garnered 1.5 million views.

I’d like to think I taught her how to do that. Álvarez was once a Stossel TV Fellow. I’m hiring another now.

We helped Álvarez make a video about socialism that got a remarkable 15 million views.

But she knew about socialism well before that. She went to a libertarian university, Francisco Marroquin. “One thing that they do is teach socialism and communism. They make you read Marx and Engels…. This is lacking in most national universities. People push for socialism because they don’t study it.”

One survey found that most millennials support socialism. But “when they were asked to define or describe socialism, none of them could!” says Álvarez. “They don’t know socialism’s massive failures.”

How can they not? The collapse of the Soviet Union and misery in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba aren’t visible enough?

Apparently not. Socialists still win elections.

“We’re all part of that same