Back to the Republic of Ignorance

Back from Spain I had to wake up to Morning Edition's story on poverty in Latin America. Michelle Kellerman asked, "Why is Latin America so poor?" NPR turns to the banking industry for answers! I thought history might be a good place to start looking for such answers: conquest, pillage, genocide, slavery after the arrival of the Europeans and more recently invasion, military coups, assasination of union leaders, systematic torture and death squad governments, drug running, etc. (all these provided and/or nurtured along by the US since the days of US-Mexican war [remember good old Thoreau?] and continuing unabated right up to the present [plan Columbia and the failed coup against Chavez]). But NPR doesn't want you to learn any history. Instead the problem is that credit for the poor is too hard to get. Astounding!