Chavez’s obsession with past creepy

Opinion: September 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

This year’s 200th anniversary of the independence of several Latin American countries has unleashed a wave of necrophilia: Several nations are literally unearthing the corpses of their independence heroes amid a growing fixation with the past.

Is the region’s obsession with history — visible in everything from best-selling books to daily discussions on popular TV talk shows — a healthy way to promote national pride? Or is it a cultural disease that is often distracting countries from the urgent task of focusing on the future, becoming more competitive and reducing poverty?

Lavish ceremonies

In recent weeks, several Latin American heads of state have presided over lavish ceremonies of exhumation of their countries’ independence heroes. The nationally televised procedures were aimed at conducting new probes into the national heroes’ deaths or to move their remains into newer, more lavish mausoleums.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez paralyzed the country recently to unearth the remains of liberator Simon Bolivar after which he announced — visibly moved — that he had seen a boot and the “perfect denture” of the national hero inside the tomb.

Chavez ordered the exhumation to investigate the causes of Bolivar’s death, which he has said occurred “under mysterious circumstances” and may have been caused by “the oligarchy.” Bolivar died on Dec. 17, 1830, in the Colombian city of Santa Marta, and virtually all historians agree that he died of tuberculosis.

Chavez has gone farther than most of his fellow leaders in focusing on the past: he routinely addresses the nation in front of a huge image of Bolivar, has called on Venezuelan children to replace toys of Superman and Batman with those of Venezuela’s independence hero, and has even changed the name of his country to “Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

But Chavez is far from alone in his fixation with the past. Consider:

In Mexico, President Felipe Calderon led a 1,600-troop military convoy along Mexico City’s Reforma Avenue in May to transfer the remains of independence heroes Miguel Hidalgo, Jose Maria Morelos and 10 others from the tomb where they had been resting since 1925 to a scientific laboratory at the National Museum of History.

A group of scientists will examine the remains of the independence heroes and make sure they are well preserved, before they are moved to the National Palace “so that all Mexicans can offer them proper homage to them in this anniversary of the fatherland,” Calderon said. The public showing of the remains is scheduled for later this year.

In Central America, several presidents are squabbling over the remains of regional independence hero Francisco Morazan, which are resting in El Salvador. Last year, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya asked his Salvadoran counterpart to deliver Morazan’s remains to Honduras, for their burial in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

El Salvador rejected the idea, while there were reports that Costa Rica could also demand Morazan’s remains amid a growing controversy in the region over where they should rest. Trouble is, General Morazan was born in 1792 in Honduras, was executed in 1842 in Costa Rica, and, in accordance with his will, was buried in El Salvador, historians say.

Salvadoran press reports say there were serious discussions among the various Central American countries to temporarily lend Morazan’s remains to one another for a few months at a time. The proposal, which some characterized as necrophilic tourism, drew strong objections from Salvadoran intellectuals.

In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa had earlier spent much of his time on a national campaign to transfer the remains of independence hero Jose Eloy Alfaro from Guayaquil to a new mausoleum he ordered to be built in the city of Montecristi. But Alfaro’s descendants objected to the move, unleashing a national debate over where Alfaro should be buried. Finally, a Solomonic decision was reached: part of Alfaro’s ashes would remain in Guayaquil, and the other part would be moved to Montecristi.

In Argentina, former President Nestor Kirchner had earlier ordered to move the remains of former President Juan Domingo Peron, who died in 1974, to a new mausoleum 30 miles outside Buenos Aires.

The casket with Peron’s remains was taken to its new resting peace by an official caravan, and the ceremony turned into chaos as opposing fractions of Peronist supporters engaged in fistfights. As soon as the headlines about the fight faded from the front pages, a new controversy erupted over whether the remains of Peron’s wife — Evita — shouldn’t be moved as well to the new mausoleum to rest with him.

While one can make a valid claim that Latin American countries are young republics that need to solidify their national character, and that celebrating their history is a good way of doing that, it is also true that using the writings of 19th century independence fighters as guidelines for 21st century government policies can often be absurd.

Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. This column is adapted from Oppenheimer’s new book, “MOVE ON! Latin America’s Obsession with the Past, and 12 Challenges for the Future,” (Random House — Debate, 2010). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.