By Greg Brosnan
ANTIGUA, Guatemala, Dec 4 (Reuters) - After decades mourning its martyrs, the Latin American left is cheering a handful of new heroes thanks to recent presidential election victories in Brazil and Ecuador.
The triumphs of Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October and Ecuador's Lucio Gutierrez in November lent a party atmosphere to an annual summit of leftists hoping a trend that began with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's 1998 win will spread throughout the region.
Many of the 700 delegates -- bearded ex-guerrillas and suited party men alike -- at the Dec. 2-4 "Sao Paulo Forum" shared the conviction that recent triumphs prove Latin America is wearying of free-market policies they say have made many poorer.
"A different Latin America is possible," Paulo Delgado, a deputy from Lula's Brazilian Workers Party, shouted to cheers of "Lula, Lula, Lula" from the packed auditorium at the annual event.
Cheers of solidarity also sounded for former paratrooper Chavez, who is battling to hold onto power since being ousted during a brief coup in April.
"Lula, (Cuba's Fidel) Castro, Chavez, Gutierrez, their job is to change the model and create an alternative in Latin America," said German Rodas, a leader of Ecuador's Socialist Party, which supported Gutierrez in his second round win.
DARING TO HOPE
During the 1960s and 1980s, Latin American leftists were assassinated, tortured and "disappeared" as governments from Mexico to Chile joined the Cold War against communism, often bolstered by U.S. funds and military training.
Guatemalans were taught to hate and fear the left during a 36-year civil war that claimed 200,000 lives before ending with 1996 peace accords. Leftist leaders were killed en masse.
But even the poor host nation's fragmented left, which has fared abysmally in post-war elections, has been bitten by the optimism bug after Brazil and Ecuador.
"This has given us an enormous push," said former Guatemalan guerrilla chief Rodrigo Asturias, who used the summit to announce he would seek the presidency in November 2003 for the National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit, a former rebel group that is now a political party.
During an interval, members of his party's youth wing and students from El Salvador in red T-shirts waved banners and shouted "Chavez, Chavez, Chavez!"
But violence during a three-day general strike in Caracas, where protesters demanded Chavez accept a referendum on ending his rule early, was a reminder even as they cheered that an election win is often only the start of the battle.
Optimism still does not come naturally for some who experienced state persecution and terror.
"People were sleeping, now maybe they'll wake up," said 64-year-old corn farmer and former guerrilla Roberto Hernandez, about the left's chances in Guatemala following.
"But some of us are still a bit scared."
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04194098> -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>