Our Brand is Crisis

Our Brand is Crisis is a political documentary from 2005 which covers the political campaign company GCS and the advising that they give to Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, “Goni.” These political advisers bring American style politics to Latin America, most specifically Bolivia. They use focus groups and political smear campaigns to win Goni the election and do so my a minuscule amount despite his not so gleaming record from his past presidency. The main issue at this time is the lack of income and jobs for the indigenous people of Bolivia and their issue with the exporting of oil through a pipeline that goes through Chile. Goni represents himself as someone who cares about these people and their needs but in the end is just like every other politician and does not help the indigenous people like he promised.
Politicians like that are rampant in the Latin America and the plight of the indigenous people is one that is just not getting any better. This is evident through out John Perkins “Confessions of an Economic Hitman.” His job was specifically to convince third world nations that certain dams or massive projects would be economically beneficial to the country but then bankrupt them in debt afterward. The mission closest to his heart was his mission in Ecuador, where the ending result put indigenous tribes in a terrible position. The oil companies were taking over and destroying the rain forest in which these tribes had lived for years. Ecuador’s first democratically elected president in years, Jaime Rold6s, was the one person on the side of these tribes but just so happened to be killed in a plane crash in 1981 after threatening to keep all foreign business out of Ecuador is they did not start benefiting the people. (183) 
All of these events happened because of the greedy of a few rich people and have put the tribes and lower classes of these nations into jeopardy of surviving day to day. “Ten years later, the neoliberal, free-trade, “market-friendly” policies of orthodox neoclassical economics have become the norm in virtually every Latin American nation. Increasing poverty, stagnant or falling real wages, and a further and steady widening of the distribution of income in virtually every nation has also become the omnipresent and largely ignored social context of the neoliberal era.” (Cypher 47). This free trade and big business options to these nations is killing them and making the rich richer and benefiting only Americans just like this campaign did. These advisers did not know what it was like to be Bolivian or what they really needed, they worked for whoever paid them and did whatever they could to make the money in return.
There comes a time when we have to stop playing America politics in other countries and come together to help out the world and not just ourselves. “The Prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle” is the perfect example of what we need to do and should be the lesson that we all take from this. Our American perspectives need to be broadened and we need to bring our hearts and brains together and stop living for just our own greed. (Perkins 247) These people represented Goni without taking in the full spectrum of Bolivian politics and who it was that was actually best for these people.