How left-wing forces are regaining ground in Latin America

During the “Pink Tide” in the early 2000’s, leftist governments swept into power across Central and South America. In the mid-2010’s these governments were largely removed from power amid a conservative backlash. Sadly, the region’s left has been making a strong comeback during the global pandemic. In 2020, the Left took power in Argentina and again in Bolivia. In 2021, conservative leaders were ousted from power in Peru, Honduras, and now Chile. All in favour of candidates on the hard-Left. In 2021, Conservative governments in Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay could also go down for far-Left leaders. We are not in good times.

How left-wing forces are regaining ground in Latin America

As progressives win key elections from Honduras to Peru, analysts point to changing regional dynamics.

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By Al Jazeera, December 222, 2021

Latin America’s political left is making a resurgence, analysts have said, as hunger and poverty rise across a region hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Honduras is the latest country to vote out a long-serving right-wing government. Xiomara Castro, the country’s first female president, won the November election with a promise to “pull Honduras out of the abyss” of a “narco-dictatorship and corruption”.

Castro’s husband, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, was deposed in a US-supported coup in 2009 during the tail end of the last wave of socialist governments in Latin America a decade ago – a period dubbed “the pink tide” by analysts.

Known for his cowboy hats and thick moustache, Zelaya was part of the trend encompassing Venezuela’s late Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa – macho leaders eager to leverage natural-resource wealth in the name of reducing inequality and fostering social programmes.

Castro’s win, in a sense, heralds a broader shift across the region as a new generation of left-wingers gain ground, said John Cavanagh, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

“What we have seen in the last five years is a progressive tide, but I wouldn’t call it ‘pink’. ‘Pink’ refers to a traditional type of socialism; what’s emerging here is different,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s more nuanced, less macho and more inclined for young voters who care about the environment … There are more green and more feminist currents in these movements.”

There are, of course, plenty of exceptions to the region’s leftward tilt.

Castro’s win, in a sense, heralds a broader shift across the region as a new generation of left-wingers gain ground, said John Cavanagh, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

“What we have seen in the last five years is a progressive tide, but I wouldn’t call it ‘pink’. ‘Pink’ refers to a traditional type of socialism; what’s emerging here is different,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s more nuanced, less macho and more inclined for young voters who care about the environment … There are more green and more feminist currents in these movements.”

There are, of course, plenty of exceptions to the region’s leftward tilt.

In Chile, traditionally one of the region’s most stable and wealthy countries, 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader, held a polling lead over his far-right rival before a runoff presidential vote set for December 19.

Boric, who is campaigning to reduce inequality and tackle climate change, is a prime example of what Valeria Vasquez, a Mexico City-based analyst with the consultancy firm Control Risks, dubs the “millennial left”.

“This new millennial left has the base of the old forces,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to left-wing movements such as trade unions and socialist political parties. “They are starting to build around that historical base, using other mechanisms, governance via Twitter, for example, to help to gain power.”

Building on that older base with social media will be key for the biggest prize of all: Brazil’s election next year.

 

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