The "Free World" of 1980 Was a Joke
January 1980 roll call of the so-called "Free World":
• Apartheid South Africa
• Korea, weeks before the Gwangju massacre
• Chiang Ching-kuo's Taiwan
• Pinochet's Chile
• Military junta Brazil
• Luis García Meza's Bolivia
• Stroessner's Paraguay
And the funniest one: Turkey, classified as fully free, while the military had already announced multiple times it was about to stage a coup. Which it did, in September of that same year.
In 1980, Venezuela was considered one of the freest countries in the world. Argentina was considered one of the most oppressive. Crazy how much can change in a generation.
Source
x.com