Latin America breaks the trend to the left in 2023

Latin America has broken up in 2023. with a recent win Javier Miley in the Argentine presidential elections, the political trend of turning to the left, which has already occurred in the governments of the region two years before, such as Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Honduras.

The break was confirmed with Ecuador and Paraguay, which remained on the right after their elections, a tendency from which only Guatemala distanced itself during the year ending in a controversial election process that the prosecution held valid since last July. , in order to annul the election results.

Milei’s landslide victory dashed the hopes of his progressive rival Sergio Massa for the Casa Rosada presidential seat, after he unexpectedly won the first round of the election on October 22, a mirage that lasted less than a month.

Argentina, the most drastic change
With the emergence of Miley, this libertarian economist hit Argentina’s political establishment with inflammatory “anti-corruption” and “anti-caste” speech, disruptive public speaking methods and an attitude closer to ‘rockstar’ qthat of a typical prophet.

In practice, his policy means moving from the protectionism of the outgoing Peronism to the most absolute liberalization of any transaction: from the inflated size of the state to its drastic reduction – including the privatization of public enterprises -, social plans for the most vulnerable to training to find a life.

Furthermore, the new president distances himself from Agenda 2030 he is also a denier of climate change and of the 30,000 disappeared from the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) that human rights organizations point out, of which he recognizes only 8,751.

In addition to the ultra-liberal discourse, close references are the former presidents of the United States Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, or politicians such as the leader of the Spanish far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascalo and Mexican actor and activist Eduardo Verástegui.

Considering the serious socioeconomic crisis that Argentina is going through, with inflation close to 150% annually, with almost half of the population below the poverty line, with a lack of reserves and a debt of close to 46,000 million dollars from the IMF, the voters decided on radical changes , hoping it would result in the improvement he promised Milea.

Argentina, with its new president, was the only country in the region that radically changed its political direction, but the alarms from Casa Rosada sounded so loud that they crossed the whole world, transmitting their echo to Europe, where the protagonist continues to give a lot to talk about.

Ecuador and Paraguay, consolidation of the right
The cyclone of the left that ravaged Latin America in 2021 and 2022 has also been stopped Ecuador and Paraguaytwo countries that were already on the right spectrum and that remained on the same side of the political map although, in the case of the Andean country, the new president Daniel Noboa positions himself more in the center than his predecessor, the conservative Guillermo Lasso.

Although he defined himself as center-left in the election campaign, the approaches of Noboa, who comes from one of the richest families in the country, are framed by the center-right, and he differs from his predecessors in the conciliatory tone of agreeing with Correismo and in a gender perspective, with an almost equal ministerial cabinet.

Although Ecuador’s presidential election was not on the calendar for 2023, the country held the election after Lasso abruptly dissolved the National Assembly – with an opposition majority – as a way out of a political crisis in which the legislature sought his removal. .

The snap election confirmed the rightward turn that the country began in 2017 with Lenin Moreno, continued with Lasso in 2021 and now continues with the young entrepreneur Nobo, who at 35 won the race for a short term of one and a half years, until the 2025 elections. .

Paraguay also remains on the right, without major changes, with the continuity of the traditional Colorado party, with conservative and liberal tendencies.

Upon arrival in the power of Santiago Peña who replaced Mario Abdo Benítezthe political creation, which has ruled almost continuously since 1948 – with the exception of the period 2008-2013, is consolidating itself in the southern country.

2024, break more trends
In 2024, presidential elections will be held in Venezuela (second semester, date not defined), El Salvador (February), Panama (May), Dominican Republic (May), Mexico (June) and Uruguay (October).

With different ideologies and different candidates, it is expected that next year’s election marathon in Latin America will bring some upheavals, but the most impressive are the gender ones, especially in cases Venezuela and Mexico.

In the primary elections last October in that Caribbean country, opponents overwhelmingly chose former liberal MP María Corina Machado as the candidate who can beat Chavism at the polls.

But anti-Chavista has an administrative disqualification, imposed by the Oversight Office, that prevents it from holding public office in popular elections until 2030, so if it is not qualified, the possibilities for change, both political and gender, are greatly reduced.

In Mexico, however, the victory of a woman is almost assured, with the candidacy of Claudia Sheinbaum for the ruling Morena and her allies (the Labor Party and the Green Party), and Xóchitl Gálvez for Frente Amplio (Party of National Action, Institutional Revolutionary Party and Party of Democratic Revolution).

According to polls, half a year before the election, Sheinbaum leads in voting intentions, followed by Gálvez at a distance, who would keep the ruling party in power and thus continue the left-wing policy of the current president. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but led by a female face.