Latin America’s Political Left Loses More Ground

In the wake of the crushing defeat by the long-ruling left-wing government of Venezuela in that country’s parliamentary elections, it is clear that the left-wing movements that have dominated Latin American politics for the past 15 years are in retreat across much of that region.  On one hand, many of the dominant figures of the political left in Latin America are no longer in power, such as the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and the Kirchner family in Argentina.  On the other hand, the economic and security situation in many of the countries led by left-wing governments in Latin America have deteriorated dramatically in recent years, sometimes as a result of these governments’ policies and sometimes due to external factors.  Now, the future of the once-dominant political left in Latin America is in jeopardy as voters across the region are increasingly rejecting the leadership of the left.

The clearest evidence of the left-wing’s loss of support across Latin America was the overwhelming victory in last weekend’s parliamentary elections in Venezuela.  While it was expected that the left-wing government of President Nicolas Maduro would suffer a defeat in these elections, the scale of the right-wing opposition’s victory nevertheless caught many by surprise.  In fact, it is possible that the right-wing opposition may now control two-thirds of the seats in the Venezuelan parliament, enabling them to reject the policies of President Maduro.  The government’s defeat was the result of the economic collapse in Venezuela that has led to hyper-inflation and a shortage of basic goods.  While the fact that oil prices have fallen sharply over the past 18 months has played a role in this economic collapse, it was the government’s economic policies over the past 15 years that are largely to blame for Venezuela’s troubles, and voters punished the government for this.

For the past 12 years, South America’s two most powerful countries, Brazil and Argentina, have been led by left-wing governments and, for a while, these governments were extremely popular as both countries enjoyed spells of strong economic growth.  However, things have taken a turn for the worse in both countries in recent years, with Argentina and Brazil now facing severe economic downturns and with corruption and abuse of power scandals engulfing both countries.  In Argentina, the 12-year Kirchner era is coming to an end with the election of the center-right candidate Mauricio Macri to the presidency last month.  Meanwhile, in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff is facing the threat of impeachment as her support levels have fallen to less than 10% amid the worsening Petrobras scandal that has reached the highest levels of her government.  As a result, the travails of the left-wing governments in these highly influential countries have cost the political left to lose momentum across the wider region.

The political left is also on the retreat in many other areas of Latin America.  For example, the left-wing presidents Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Ollanta Humala in Peru and Michelle Bachelet in Chile all have seen their levels of support fall dramatically in recent years, due in part to the economic downturns in these countries.  Meanwhile, left-wing governments in Central America are also struggling at the moment, with El Salvador’s left-wing President Mauricio Funes losing support due to a soaring crime problem in that country and with Costa Rica’s President Luis Guillermo Solis being blamed for that country’s recent economic slowdown.  Altogether, support for left-wing governments has clearly waned across Latin America and the 15-year era of dominance by the political left in that region is coming to an end.  Regardless, this era has had a major influence on Latin America and it is likely that the political left will continue to play a major role in the region in the years ahead.