The most dangerous were left-wing totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union.

No-one saw him as an alternative to the increasingly-authoritarian left-wing regime of Maurice Bishop in the early 1980s.

Re- pression of dissent, for instance, was common to both right- and left-wing regimes around the world.

Since independence, Latin American countries have been subject to both right and left-wing authoritarian regimes, stemming from a history of colonialism in which one group dominated another.

Only two months after his arrival came the American invasion of Grenada, to topple a left-wing regime and a suspected pro-Cuban plot.

In the 1970s, Peru was governed by the only left-wing regime in South America, a continent dominated by right-wing governments.

A series of military governments followed, with a radical left-wing regime being installed by Capt. Thomas Sankara in August 1983.

"CNN is just looking for any way possible to hang on until another left-wing socialist regime comes to the WH," wrote Zigzag.

And unlike the United States, which considered left-wing regimes considerably more threatening than right-wing ones, the Latin Americans saw the greater menace as coming from the right.

First, Mr President, the China that cruelly persecutes critics of the regime such as Wang Dan can no longer be considered a left-wing regime.