Gustavo Petro became president of Colombia and with him, there are now 10 nations that have Latin American citizens under left-wing flags that in recent years have been gaining ground, making this process “a turn or a new wave,” which has involved many but has not yet impacted countries like Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay, making this bloc of five countries the last bastion of right-wing democratic governments.
As a relevant fact, Colombia had never had a leftist government in its history; The citizens of this beautiful country are making their debut, with a driver who comes from the ranks of the guerrillas and is the promoter of the agenda of the São Paulo Forum, which aims to present 21st century socialism in Latin America.
The reflection before this reality that puts pressure on the right-wing governments, positioned as neoliberal by the same members of the Forum, is to check if this growth of the left is due to the fact that they have stopped promoting attractive public policies before the electorate from conservative governments. , or if the populist message or rhetoric of the leftist leaders convinces more the citizens who are tired of the poor results in some government sectors.
The precursors of this movement that is on the rise were only three, José Mujica in Uruguay, Fernando Lugo from Paraguay and Michelle Bachelet from Chile who had two periods of government.
The aforementioned former presidents had good results in their exercise of government. They served their terms and the idea of perpetuating themselves in the government house never crossed their minds, turning their leadership into autocracies like Venezuela and Nicaragua, a situation that does represent a danger for democracies.
The leftist nations, according to the official data, have serious fiscal problems that limit their growth. They also go through economic crises that, given their incapacity, allow them to grow. It is enough to review the government of Pedro Castillo in Peru, which has already had more than six cabinets in less than a year of government and has not been able to level the course of the Inca ship, neglecting the dialogue with its neighbors due to the internal problems that are not accommodated.
At this crossroads, the suggestion to the Latin American citizen is to review the numbers and metrics reached by the government leader of his country and put on the decision table his choice to support this or that party color according to its efficiency.
On this year’s electoral agenda is Brazil, which has scheduled its process for October and once again has Lula Da Silva, representative of the left and founder of the Sào Paul Forum, with a broad 49 percent of the preferences over the current Brazilian boss Jair Bolsonaro.
If Lula wins, the region will be painted red as it happened in the year 2000.
This week’s analysis focuses on accounting for the advance of the left in Latin America, this is a fait accompli, but the challenge for these nations is to show that the results are above ideology and false rhetoric.
We’ll meet later.