Guns N' Roses.

GET BEADY FOR THE RETURN OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES. FORMER TUPAMARO REBEL LEADER JOSE MUJICA (above) pioneered urban guerrilla warfare in Uruguay back in the 1960s. Thirty years later, the flower child turned flower farmer is still out front pushing for agrarian reform, but now he is doing it from his seat in Congress.

Mujica is just one of many leftist activists forged in the fires of armed struggle who are entering mainstream politics. The resurgence of recycled rebels in the region reflects how hard-core doctrine and rhetoric has faded on both the right and the left. One-time Marxists fought for their lives against ruthless dictatorships. Now, they share power with their former adversaries in Bolivia and El Salvador. Chile, the homeland of one of the bloodiest purges in the name of fighting communism, may elect the first Socialist to the presidency since the ill-fated term of Salvador Allende in the 1970s.

Together with European politicians seeking the so-called Third Way, the new Latin breed of politician acknowledges the rich potential of free markets, while seeking a way to spread the rewards to society's needy. This new political debate may serve the poor better than did decades of strife.