Recent left-wing triumphs in Latin America may prove short-lived
The bigger trend in recent elections has been anti-incumbency
When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Workers’ Party won Brazil’s presidential election in October many commentators rushed to colour the map of Latin America red. In January, for the first time, all of the seven most populous countries will have left-of-centre governments. Some saw this as a fundamental change, likening it to the “pink tide” of the early 2000s, in which Lula (as he is known) and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez were prominent. That swing to the left lasted over two or more presidential periods.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The coming swing to the right”
From the December 3rd 2022 edition
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