Pink Tide

[[File:Hugo, Dilma, Pepe, Cristina en Mercosur.jpg|thumb|right|225px|Chávez, Rousseff, Mujica, and Kirchner at the 2012 Mercosur summit.]]
{{Politics}}
{{Ctransquote|The recent elections in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras provide hope for greater [[social justice]] and a more participatory democracy, but they still do not mean a shift to the left in Central America. They are, first and foremost, the result of an ostensible loss of prestige from the right-wing parties that have traditionally ruled.|Spanish|Las recientes elecciones en Costa Rica, El Salvador y Honduras permiten alimentar esperanzas de una mayor justicia social y una democracia más participativa, pero todavía no significan un giro a la izquierda en América Central. Son ante todo el resultado de una ostensible pérdida de prestigio de los partidos de derecha que tradicionalmente han gobernado.|||Albrecht Koschützke and Hajo Lanz, directors of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation for Central America<ref name="Ebert">{{cite web|title=Tres tenues luces de esperanza Las fuerzas de izquierda cobran impulso en tres países centroamericanos|work=Nueva Sociedad|date=2014|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20140810134141/http://www.nuso.org/upload/articulos/PERSPECTIVA%20Koschuetzke%20Lanz.pdf}}</ref>
}}

The '''Pink Tide''' is a nickname given to the wave of [[progressive]] governments in [[Latin America]] after the consecutive elections of [[Hugo Chávez]] in 1998 in [[Venezuela]] and Lula da Silva in [[Brazil]]. The term is a reference to the nature of these political movements, as they are not outright [[Communism|communist]] (normally identified by red), but some more moderate version of the [[left]] (thus pink). However, the term has been criticized for being vague and simplistic, as it connects several quite different political movements with only one major thing in common, that being their tendency to be more left-wing than the traditional parties or regimes that precede them.<ref name="Jared">{{cite journal|last1=Abbott|first1=Jared|title=Will the Pink Tide Lift All Boats? Latin American Socialisms and Their Discontents|url=http://www.dsausa.org/will_the_pink_tide_lift_all_boats|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref> The ideologies of these governments range from [[democratic socialism]], [[social democracy|social-democracy]], [[Libertarian socialist|libertarian socialism]] and [[populism|left populism]] to even far-left and [[authoritarian]] governments. It has also been argued that there was a second Pink Tide starting in 2019, in response to the far-right governments that replaced many of the governments of the former Pink Tide during a period known as the conservative wave.<ref>[https://commonwealthtimes.org/2022/03/18/latin-americas-second-pink-tide-is-a-result-of-right-wing-government-failures/ Latin America’s second ‘Pink Tide’ is a result of right-wing government failures], Diana Flores, ''Commonwealth Times'' 18 March 2022</ref> In fact, the second Pink Tide has surpassed the first in terms of how many Latin American governments had left-leaning leaders at the same time, even if many of them were elected in close, highly divisive elections.

But, although these governments tend to be grouped together, other than mutual international diplomatic support for geostrategic reasons, each one has very little in common internally.<ref name="ISBESTER68">{{cite book|title=The Paradox of Democracy in Latin America: Ten Country Studies of Division and Resilience|last1=Isbester|first1=Katherine|date=2011|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1442601802|location=Toronto|page=68}}</ref> While some are clearly authoritarian with questionable [[ethics]] and blatant antidemocratic behaviors, like [[Cuba]], Venezuela, and Nicaragua, others tend more towards [[Social liberal|socio-liberal]] or [[libertarian socialist]] tendencies with socially liberal policies (support of [[LGBTI]] rights including [[gay marriage]], [[abortion]], [[Marijuana|marijuana]] legalization, etc.), others are moderate and economically progressive, such as Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and [[Costa Rica]].{{cn}} Some others are also more socially conservative, being disdainful towards [[LGBT]] issues and [[women's rights]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Angelo |first=Paul J. |last2=June 23 |first2=Will Freeman {{!}} |last3=2021 |title=A Socially Conservative Left Is Gaining Traction in Latin America |url=https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/a-socially-conservative-left-is-gaining-traction-in-latin-america/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Americas Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref> Even so, English-speaking media has been accused of accentuating the negatives and often overlooking important gains of these governments in aspects such as poverty reduction, indigenous peoples' rights, and economic growth.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oikonomakis|first1=Leonidas|title=Europe’s pink tide? Heeding the Latin American experience|url=https://www.thepressproject.gr/endetails.php?aid=74480|accessdate=5 April 2017}}</ref>

==Origins==
The reasons behind the sudden turn to the left of many Latin American countries include such things as the infamous {{wpl|Operation Condor||,}} a series of [[US]]-backed operations in [[South America]] that included economic warfare, political murders, [[Coup d'état|coups]], and sponsorship of brutal [[far-right|far-right regimes]] in order to fight communism [[McCarthyism|and everything that even vaguely looks like it]]. These activities provoked the overthrow of several democratically-elected progressive governments during the 1960s and 1970s, including among others, [[Salvador Allende]] in [[Chile]], Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala, [[Juan Domingo Perón]] in [[Argentina]], and even João Goulart of [[Brazil]], followed by far-right dictatorships that committed all sorts of [[human rights]] violations, including [[Concentration camp|internment camps]], [[torture]], [[rape]], political kidnappings, forced disappearances, [[Human trafficking|child trafficking]], and other obscene acts under the supervision of the [[CIA]].<ref>[http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/especiales/2006/03/24/l-01164353.htm "Los secretos de la guerra sucia continental de la dictadura" (The secrets of the continental dirty war of the dictators)], ''Clarin'', 24 March 2006</ref><ref name="Industrial Repression2">{{cite book|url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377|title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies)|last1=McSherry|first1=J. Patrice|publisher=Routledge|year=2011|isbn=0415664578|editor1=Esparza, Marcia|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=acGNAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA107#v=onepage&q&f=false 107]|chapter=Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America|author-link1=J. Patrice McSherry|editor2=Henry R. Huttenbach|editor3=Daniel Feierstein}}</ref><ref name="Greg Grandin2">Greg Grandin (2011). ''[http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo11643711.html The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War].'' University of Chicago Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6FivSpNY2fkC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 75]. ISBN 9780226306902.</ref><ref name="p. 2232">Walter L. Hixson (2009). ''[http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300119121 The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy].'' Yale University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DNId6HxkzQwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA223#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 223].  ISBN 0300151314.</ref> Nonetheless, the opinion of the region on the United States remained high in most countries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Perception of the U.S. among Latin Americans, by country 2018 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/807013/latam-perception-united-states-country/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref> Unsurprisingly, the people living in said countries tended to be rather upset about the state of affairs Operation Condor brought about.{{fact|joke}}

To be fair, once the crimes of these dictatorships and the US government support became common knowledge, public outcry did happen among the American public and some sectors of the [[Democratic Party]] (Democrats were the opposition for most of this time).{{cn}} They pushed for American withdrawal of South and [[Central America]] and a cessation of support for these regimes. In fact, international pressure from the US (particularly during [[Jimmy Carter]]'s government), [[Europe]], and the Latin American countries not under far-right dictatorships was part of the reason why most of these regimes fell.{{cn}} The first decades after the end of the dictatorships was followed by very heterogeneous policies, with some countries, such as Brazil and Chile, achieving a remarkable economic stability, while others, such as Argentina and Mexico, sinking deep into recessions due to {{wpl|Currency crisis|currency crises|.}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=A monetary and fiscal history of Latin America, 1960-2017 |date=2021 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-5179-1198-0 |editor-last=Kehoe |editor-first=Timothy Jerome |location=Minneapolis London |editor-last2=Nicolini |editor-first2=Juan Pablo}}</ref>
==The Pink Tide in maps==
Red indicates left-wing governments and blue indicates right-wing governments.
<center><gallery widths=200px heights=300px>
File:Foro sao paulo members (August 2011).svg|The Pink Tide at its original peak, 2011.
File:Foro sao paulo members (June 2018).svg|The Pink tide at its minimum, 2018.
File:Foro sao paulo members.svg|Central and South America in January 2023, in the midst of the second Pink Tide.
</gallery></center>

==Where are they now?==
The countries in the region have experienced the Pink Tide differently. In some countries, the leftist parties still remain democratically in power, while in others, there has been a peaceful transition away to the conservatives (and sometimes back again to the leftists).

*{{cf|ar}} Néstor Kirchner died in 2010, after leaving office in 2007 to the winner of that year's election, his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. After ruining most of the Argentinian economy, she was replaced in 2015 by the incompetent right-wing president Mauricio Macri, who couldn't resolve the problems. Left-wing [[Peronism]] came back to power in 2019 after Cristina's protégé, Alberto Fernández, won the election. With Fernández, however, the already bleak situation deteriorated faster than ever: the GDP fell by 2.2% in 2019, with a double-digit drop in 2020. In 2023, inflation reached almost 200%,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Argentina 2023 inflation seen at 185% -cenbank poll By Reuters |url=https://www.investing.com/news/economic-indicators/argentina-2023-inflation-seen-at-185-cenbank-poll-3233041 |access-date=2024-01-08 |website=Investing.com |language=en-us}}</ref> despite the strenuous efforts by the government to forcefully freeze prices<ref>[https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/46504/4/PO2020_Argentina_en.pdf Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean -2020]</ref> Meanwhile, the country defaulted for the ninth time<ref>[https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/05/23/argentina-defaults-yet-again-but-hopes-to-get-off-lightly Argentina defaults yet again, but hopes to get off lightly]</ref> and more than 40% of the Argentinian population is living in poverty.<ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/argentina-s-economy-gets-revenge-after-leader-put-politics-first Argentina’s Economy Buckles After Leader Puts Politics First]</ref> Since there is nothing so bad that it couldn't be worse, Argentina was also among the worst affected countries by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], being the 15th with the highest number of cases per capita and the 11th with the highest number of deaths by July 2021.<ref>https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases</ref> In 2022, Cristina Kirchner was found guilty of corruption, and sentenced to six years in prison.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Booth |first=Amy |date=2022-12-06 |title=Argentina’s Cristina Fernández sentenced to six years in $1bn fraud case |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/06/cristina-fernandez-de-kirchner-argentina-sentenced-prison-fraud-case |access-date=2024-01-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Weary of their incompetent and corrupt government, Argentina decided to elect the far-right libertarian [[Javier Milei]] by the end of 2023.
*{{cf|bo}} The resilient president Evo Morales finally met his political downfall in November 2019. He lost a referendum on whether or not he should be allowed to run for a fourth term in October 2019, but the Bolivian Supreme Court reversed the decision and allowed him to run.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/03/evo-morales-bolivia-president-election-limits</ref> Disputes over that issue as well as allegations of election fraud{{efn|This is ''alleged'' election fraud, as there is a substantial dispute over whether or not any election fraud actually took place.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/bolivia-dismissed-its-october-elections-fraudulent-our-research-found-no-reason-suspect-fraud/</ref>}} led to massive protests and, just a few hours after Morales announced a new election, the military called for his resignation and he accepted. He was replaced in what some have called a [[coup]]<ref>https://apnews.com/article/evo-morales-did-a-coup-force-6b2c94306089451d9761878c9f7ce2f1</ref> by far-right [[Christian nationalist]] Jeanine Áñez Chávez, who proclaimed herself president and walked into the presidential palace brandishing an oversized [[Bible]].<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-11/bolivia-faces-power-vacuum-and-more-chaos-after-morales-quits</ref> A new election was held in October 2020, and Arce, the candidate put up by Morales's party, won.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/19/bolivia-election-exit-polls-suggest-thumping-win-evo-morales</ref> Áñez would later be charged for abuses of power committed during her interim government,<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/bolivia-jeanine-anez-arce-coup/</ref> including the [[torture]] of opposition figures.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/bolivia-government-tortured-executed-opponents-report</ref> But in spite of their brief resurgence, a power struggle erupted within the left wing MAS party between Morales, who still wanted a fourth term, and Arce, who dropped out of the 2025 election amid a decrease in support because he didn't want to split the left wing vote. <ref>[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/15/president-luis-arce-quits-bolivias-presidential-race-amid-slumping-support "Incumbent Luis Arce quits Bolivia’s presidential race amid slumping support," Al Jazeera]</ref> It ultimately didn't matter, because the leftists lost the 2025 election, ending twenty years of dominance. Now the country is guaranteed to have a right wing president for at least the next five years after 2025. <ref>[https://apnews.com/article/bolivia-elections-right-wing-274e22ad9f493f60669a01615d3fef65 "Bolivia heads to a presidential runoff as 2 decades of left-wing dominance ends," Associated Press]</ref>
*{{cf|br}} Lula da Silva left office to his protégé Dilma Rousseff. The all-consuming {{wpl|Lava Jato}} scandal resulted in Rousseff's impeachment, and Lula's conviction, and seems to be touching politicians in Brazil regardless of their ideological backgrounds (here's looking at you, Temer). Hypothetically, Lula might have won the 2018 elections; however, he was disqualified due to his controversial conviction. Instead, the far-right candidate [[Jair Bolsonaro]] managed to prevail, and things got worse during his term. However, in 2022, Lula was able to defeat Bolsonaro in a narrow election, making Bolsonaro the first incumbent president to be defeated in Brazil since their 1985 return to democracy.<ref>[https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-religion-caribbean-voting-ed2130a095ca42ff1be324a3dea9f355 Lula defeats Bolsonaro to again become Brazil’s president], Mauricio Saverese and Diane Jeantet, ''AP News'' 30 October 2022</ref>
*{{cf|cl}} The political pendulum seems to swing back and forth in Chile. Socialist Michelle Bachelet ended her second term peacefully in 2018 and conservative businessman and Pinochet-wannabe [[Sebastián Piñera]] was president from 2018-2022. His authoritarian regime struggled with widespread protests against [[neoliberalism]] and economic inequality, and he would be ousted by the left-wing {{wpl|Gabriel Boric||.}}<ref>{{wpa|2019 Chilean protests|}}</ref>
*{{cf|co}} Historically one of the most conservative countries in Latin America, a leftist president, Gustavo Petro, was finally elected in 2022 in response to the rising inequality in the country that was exacerbated by the [[COVID-19]] pandemic.
*{{cf|cr}} Carlos Alvarado Quesada from the center-left Citizens' Action Party won the 2018 election. He peacefully transitioned power to the conservative Rodrigo Chaves in 2022.
*{{cf|cu}} Miguel Díaz-Canel is the country's first leader outside the Castro family since the Revolution in 1959. Being born on 1960, he's also relatively young (well, compared to his immediate predecessors). Cuba saw {{wpl|2021 Cuban protests|strong protests in 2021}} asking for economic and political reforms, which were met with brutality.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-11 |title=Cuba: Crackdown on Protests Creates Rights Crisis {{!}} Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/11/cuba-crackdown-protests-creates-rights-crisis |access-date=2024-01-12 |language=en}}</ref> Since then, the political and economic situation in Cuba is getting worse and worse, with food and fuel shortages and more repression from an already authoritarian government,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why the Situation in Cuba Is Deteriorating |url=https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-situation-cuba-deteriorating |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}}</ref> leading to a massive exodus to the US.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Augustin |first=Ed |last2=Robles |first2=Frances |date=2022-12-10 |title=‘Cuba Is Depopulating’: Largest Exodus Yet Threatens Country’s Future |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/world/americas/cuba-us-migration.html |access-date=2024-01-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
*{{cf|do}} While the PLD was ousted from power after 16 years in 2020, they were succeeded by another center-left candidate, Luis Abinader, from the Modern Revolutionary Party.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Dominican Republic changes its ruling party |url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/07/08/the-dominican-republic-changes-its-ruling-party |access-date=2024-01-24 |work=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> 
*{{cf|ec}} Lenín Moreno of Rafael Correa's party won a narrow victory in 2017. However, Moreno is way more conservative than his predecessor and began distancing himself from left-wing populism after he took office. He secured a referendum to impose term limits on the president's office, thereby locking Correa out of office.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/05/a-referendum-in-ecuador-is-another-defeat-for-south-americas-left-wing-populists/?utm_term=.d60f8386dc45</ref> In 2023, Correa's candidate, Luisa Gonzales, lost to Daniel Noboa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-15 |title=Daniel Noboa, heir to banana fortune, wins Ecuador’s presidential runoff election |url=https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-presidential-election-cartels-noboa-luisa-65a9d0e3b3e525fac39e02a7d2e0b89c |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> In 2024, Noboa ordered a raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, violating international law under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UN chief joins condemnation of Ecuadorian raid on Mexican embassy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/07/latin-american-governments-condemn-ecuador-after-police-raid-mexican-embassy |website=The Guardian}}</ref>
*{{cf|sv}} The FMLN party (formerly a communist guerrilla) won two straight elections before coming in last in a three-way race to a third-party ex-FMLN candidate, Nayib Bukele.
*{{cf|gt}} Álvaro Colom peacefully transitioned power to his right-wing successor in 2012. The center-left would only elect a president again, Bernardo Arévalo, of the Movimiento Semilla, in 2023. This transition was less-than-peaceful though.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-15 |title=Reformist Arevalo sworn in as Guatemala's president despite opponents' efforts to derail transition |url=https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240115-tensions-in-guatemala-congress-delay-arevalo-s-presidential-inauguration |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref>
*{{cf|hn}} Liberal-turned-left-wing-populist Manuel Zelaya was removed in a bloody US-backed military coup in 2009. Right-wing leaders have since tightened their grip on the country, including "winning" the {{wpl|Honduran general election, 2017|so-called "general election" in 2017|.}} However, by 2022, leftists regained control with {{wpl|Xiomara Castro||.}}
*{{cf|mx}} Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) won the 2018 election in a landslide after having lost both the 2006 election (the result of which was… rather questionable, to say the least) and the 2012 election, securing over 50% of the vote and his party and allies securing the first majority in both chambers of the country in decades, probably in response to the "[[Donald Trump|Orange Tide]]" that happened in the United States. To be honest, everyone expected him to win after the disastrous government of Enrique Peña Nieto, but he still managed to disrupt pollsters who did not think he would win by ''that much''. Mexico saw a severe democratic backslide under AMLO as he pushed to silence critics and erode democratic checks and balances.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mexico's Democracy Is Crumbling Under AMLO |url=https://www.cfr.org/article/mexicos-democracy-crumbling-under-amlo |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}}</ref> Perhaps his most frontal attack on Mexican democracy was his attempts to crumble the country's judiciary system, especially by enacting electoral laws that aimed at diluting the power of electoral institutions while casting a shadow on the legitimacy of the 2024 elections<ref>{{Cite web |last=School |first=Stanford Law |date=2023-10-24 |title=Guardians of Democracy: Battling for the Rule of Law in Mexico |url=https://law.stanford.edu/2023/10/24/guardians-of-democracy-battling-for-the-rule-of-law-in-mexico/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Stanford Law School |language=en}}</ref> with analysts comparing his government with the period when the country was ruled by the {{wpl|Institutional Revolutionary Party||.}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mexico’s hard-won democracy is in danger |url=https://www.ft.com/content/4e03a18f-db5e-4ac6-bfa1-3dce06428098 |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=www.ft.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Krauze |first=León |date=2023-07-17 |title=Opinion {{!}} Democracy is under threat in Mexico as López Obrador plans his succession |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/18/mexico-elections-democracy-decline-opposition/ |access-date=2024-01-09 |work=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Martinez |first=Andrés |date=2023-02-28 |title=Opinion: Why does Mexico's president want to dismantle the democratic system that elected him? |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-02-28/mexico-protests-elections-law-lopez-obrador |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Despite these accusations, AMLO's successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, also won the 2024 election in a landslide, becoming Mexico's first female and Jewish president. Sheinbaum also received the most votes ever in Mexican history for a presidential candidate, surpassing López Obrador's record in 2018, and achieved the highest vote percentage for any candidate since 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mexico's Sheinbaum wins landslide to become country's first woman president |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicans-vote-election-seen-crowning-first-female-president-2024-06-02/ |website=Reuters}}</ref> These results were attributed to a reduction in poverty under AMLO's government through the expansion of the welfare state, raising the minimum wage, and investments in infrastructure projects, and viewed as voters backing these policies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the legacy of Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/30/what-is-the-legacy-of-mexican-president-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador |website=Al Jazeera}}</ref> After AMLO got tired with Mexico’s judiciary preventing him from gutting the electoral institutions, Morena managed to hijack the judiciary with a controversial reform that decided that magistrates should be elected instead of appointed.<ref name= wlrn>{{Cite web |last=Padgett |first=Tim |date=2025-06-05 |title=Morena's Mexico reminds us democracy firewalls can be hacked in Trump's America, too |url=https://www.wlrn.org/commentary/2025-06-05/morena-mexico-courts-trump |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=WLRN |language=en}}</ref> As a result, around 2600 posts, from local magistrates to supreme court justices, were up for grabs  in an election where only 13% of Mexicans turned out to vote, a record low in the country’s history,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Graham |first=Thomas |date=2025-06-02 |title=Mexican president hails ‘complete success’ after just 13% vote in judicial elections |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/02/mexico-judicial-election-claudia-sheinbaum |access-date=2025-08-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> with observers criticizing the complexity of the process, including "cheating sheets” designed for the victory of Morena’s candidates.<ref name= wlrn/><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-06-02 |title=Mexico's first judicial elections marked by low turnout, confusion and disillusionment |rl=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexicos-first-ever-judicial-elections-marked-low-turnout-confusion-dis-rcna210330 |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=August 27 |first=Jacques Coste {{!}} |last2=2025 |title=Mexico’s New Supreme Court Faces Defining Tests |url=https://americasquarterly.org/article/mexicos-new-supreme-court/ |access-date=2025-08-30 |website=Americas Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, has captured the judiciary |url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/06/05/mexicos-ruling-party-morena-has-captured-the-judiciary |access-date=2025-08-30 |work=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> 
*{{cf|ni}} Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007. In 2018, he responded violently to {{wpl|2018 Nicaraguan protests|demonstrations}} and experienced demands for his resignation. Following Hugo Chávez's path, Ortega has eroded more and more the democratic institutions in Nicaragua,<ref>[https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/06/26/daniel-ortega-tears-up-all-pretence-of-democracy-in-nicaragua Daniel Ortega tears up all pretence of democracy in Nicaragua]</ref> arresting opposition leaders as well as journalists and activists.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/nicaragua-police-arrest-opposition-leaders-ortega-treason-laws</ref><ref>https://www.npr.org/2021/06/23/1009339843/has-nicaraguas-president-become-a-dictator-hes-jailing-political-opponents</ref> In June 2021, the top US diplomat for Latin America, Julie Chung, tweeted that the arrests "should resolve any remaining doubts about Ortega's credentials as a dictator."<ref>https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210622-timeline-nicaragua-s-authoritarian-slide</ref>
*{{cf|pa}} The center-left {{wpl|Laurentino Cortizo}} won the presidential election of 2019, promising to take care of the corruption that was exposed by the [[Panama Papers]].
*{{cf|py}} The former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was {{wpl|Impeachment of Fernando Lugo|impeached}} and removed from the presidency in 2012 over a controversial handling of a land dispute that turned violent and alleged sexual abuse during his time as a Catholic bishop. The next election was a peaceful transition of power to the conservative Colorado Party, which supported the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship.
*{{cf|pe}} Peru's center-left president, Ollanta Humala, was forced to withdraw from his reelection campaign because of ''Lava Jato''. The next election was won by right-of-center Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a very close call against the daughter of former right-wing dictator [[Alberto Fujimori]], Keiko Fujimori. He was later impeached, and even though the impeachment process was blocked in Congress, he had to resign over further corruption scandals, also from ''Lava Jato''. He was replaced by the increasingly authoritarian center-right Martín Vizcarra, who was impeached and removed from office after Congress declared him "morally incompetent", and was replaced by Manuel Merino, the President of the Peruvian Congress, who ran a "far-right government". This sparked mass protests from Peruvians who felt the impeachment was unfounded, an overreach of congressional power, and even many analysts, experts, and media outlets across the country called it a coup.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/peru-president-merino-resigns-vizcarra/2020/11/15/47cb0a54-275c-11eb-92b7-6ef17b3fe3b4_story.html</ref> Five days after taking office, Merino resigned due to two deaths in the protests and was succeeded by Fransisco Sagasti, who took over as an "emergency" and "transitional" president. Come 2021, elections were finally held, with former teacher and longtime activist Pedro Castillo winning over Keiko Fujimori, who disputed the election results in a very Trumpian way, which delayed the transition period for Castillo and grounded the country to a halt. Castillo, a left-winger who wanted to replace the constitution inherited from Fujimori's regime, was finally declared president on July 19 and took office on July 28, 2021. However, Castillo couldn't accomplish much due to the aforementioned Fujimori-era constitution. In December 2022, he tried to dissolve the Peruvian Congress after they attempted to impeach him for the third time for spurious reasons. Ultimately, this was considered an attempted coup by many international observers,<ref>{{wpa|2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt}}</ref> with Mexico's leader, López Obrador, one of the few to support Castillo.<ref>[https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20221208-peru-s-impeached-president-castillo-appears-in-court-on-rebellion-charges Peru's impeached president Castillo appears in court on rebellion charges], ''France 24'' 8 December 2022</ref> In a [[self-fulfilling prophecy]], Castillo was impeached and arrested. He was replaced by Dina Boluarte, who called for a political truce, essentially returning things to the status quo. Within her first months in office, Boluarte perpetrated the Ayacucho and Juliaca massacres, cracking down on protests against her government and undermining democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peru’s First Female President Has Blood on Her Hands |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/27/perus-first-female-president-has-blood-on-her-hands/ |website=Foreign Policy}}</ref>
*{{cf|uy}} Uruguay's center-left Broad Front party managed to win three straight elections until their candidate lost to the conservative Luis Lacalle Pou in 2019. In 2024, however, Lacalle Pou failed to elect his successor and the Broad Front returned to power in March 2025, with {{wpl|Yamandú Orsi||.}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2024/11/25/who-is-yamandu-orsi-uruguays-next-president|title=Who is Yamandu Orsi, Uruguay’s next president?|date=November 25, 2024|work=[[Al Jazeera]]}}</ref>
*{{cf|ve}} Hugo Chávez died in 2013 and was succeeded by [[Nicolás Maduro]] until 2026 in a [[Extrajudicial punishment|extrajudicial removal/kidnapping]] by the United States.<ref>[https://archive.ph/ZKHHp Venezuela Live Updates: Maduro Arrives at Courthouse as Trump Expands Threats] by Frances Robles (Jan. 4, 2026, 10:06 p.m. ET) ''The New York Times'' (archived from 5 Jan 2026 15:59:06 UTC).</ref> Venezuela has been slowly spiraling into disaster after the opposition parties re-took the congress in 2015. In 2019, there was a presidential crisis on whether the self-proclaimed "acting president" Juan Guaidó or Maduro should be recognized. Countries such as the United States recognize Guaidó while countries such as Russia and China recognize Maduro. According to the Venezuelan constitution, if the president is illegitimate, then the leader of the National Assembly (Guaidó) shall be recognized as interim president to ensure free and democratic elections. Although Maduro was re-elected in 2018, the voter turnout was very low and the main opposition parties were banned from participating.<ref>https://qz.com/1283108/venezuela-election-amid-boycotts-and-irregularities-voter-turnout-was-the-lowest-in-60-years</ref> The 2024 presidential election was even more unfree and unfair as Maduro managed to control all the institutions behind the election and repressed any form of political opposition in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-24 |title=Maduro regime doubles down on censorship and repression in lead-up to Venezuelan election - ICIJ |url=https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/07/maduro-regime-doubles-down-on-censorship-and-repression-in-lead-up-to-venezuelan-election/ |access-date=2024-08-27 |language=en-US}}</ref> In the end, Maduro lost the election, but thanks to [[vote fraud]] and violence, managed to stay in power.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-02 |title=AP review of Venezuela opposition-provided vote tallies casts doubt on government’s election results |url=https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-maduro-machado-biden-gonzalez-a625eb01979bc9cf5570d03242f198b1 |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref>  Venezuela's economy sank even faster than its democracy, as the country's GDP per capita dropped almost 90% between 2013 and 2021<ref>{{Cite web |title=Has Venezuela’s economy bottomed out? |url=https://www.ft.com/content/789bedb2-27c7-4b20-a30d-a5669ffc06ce |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=www.ft.com}}</ref> and its inflation rate rose to 10 million percent in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sanchez |first=Valentina |date=2019-08-03 |title=Venezuela hyperinflation hits 10 million percent. 'Shock therapy' may be only chance to undo the economic damage |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/venezuela-inflation-at-10-million-percent-its-time-for-shock-therapy.html |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Pinko commie]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}
[[Category:Americas]]
[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[category:Government incompetence]]
[[Category:Socialism]]

Categories: Americas, Authoritarianism, Government incompetence, Socialism