A few years ago, seven to be exact, in a journalism class a very respected columnist and investigative reporter told us that he would bet for democracy in Latin America then, but not in 10 years.

I felt insulted. That is, I said, like saying that Latin America has no capacity for real democracy, for sustained democracy. Essentially, that democracy in Latin America was just a trend, not an inherent phenomenon.

Now, I caught myself saying very similar things, out of rage, desperation, shame, pity. There was a summit of the Organization of American States (OAS), did you hear? It was just this week, and there was a laundry list of problems, and the same blame game of always, but there were also several calls to emergency action to prevent more violence and potential civil wars in the region.

This year, Ecuador, yet again, had a sudden change of power. As I write, the president of Bolivia had resigned amidst fierce protests that already claimed a life. The image on the cover of this edition brings sobering memories of not too long ago, when army forces were seen on the streets unbearably frequently.

The flamant new OAS secretary general Jose Miguel Insulza will travel to Nicaragua next week at Managua's request to examine the political crisis pitting President Enrique Bolanos against opposition parties that control Congress. On Wednesday, more than 5,000 Nicaraguan police deployed a strong presence in the capital.

In Panama, on the other hand, at least 20 people were injured and around 400 were arrested Tuesday in violent clashes between protesters and police, in protests over a proposed pension reform plan. It seems that we have not learned to take care of policy and politics without violence.

As if we haven't noticed, a report form Amnesty International portrayed a Latin America plagued by torture, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions in 2004 and warned that “democratic institutions and the rule of law were at risk throughout much of Latin America.”

Lastly, clearly one of the strongest ties forged in Latin America are between the governments and their people. For instance, all the Central American governments were very keen of signing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), never mind that their countries were being torn apart by protests, and that the overwhelming majority of the population expressed their absolute opposition.

As much as I oppose the violence, and the dismantlement of the democratic institutions each time things don't go our way, I'm wondering now if the only way to get Latin America's act together is to do away with the old political class in its entirety, so that they stop thinking they have a good grip on power, and we start the democratic game from square one.

There is a serious problem of representation, and it's so grave that clearly the people in Latin American countries have totally lost faith on the mechanism of representation and democracy to carry their will, and have no other alternative but to go to the streets and ignite violence.