A Red October in Latin America?

Massive protests, constitutional crises, and elections show the ongoing potential of political transition in Latin America.

Guilherme Lazzari
Nov 7 · 3 min read
Photo by Elias Arias on Unsplash

The political landscape of Latin America seems to have been quite intense in October 2019.

We have been witnessing massive protests in Chile and Ecuador, a constitutional crisis in Peru, and elections in Bolivia, Uruguay, and Argentina.

Let’s take a closer look.

The Protests in Chile and Social Crisis in Ecuador

Chile seems to be the most radical case. President Sebastian Piñera has declared a state of emergency because of the growing number of protests around the country.

The crisis began in Santiago when high school students showed their resentment against the transportation fare increase in the capital. A significant part of the population relies on the subway system.

The first response from Piñera was to criminalize the student movement and adopt extremely repressive measures against those riots.

The conflict between the population and soldiers in the streets brought back painful memories of the military dictatorship that ended in the late 80s.

This tension on both sides has caused dozens of deaths, looting in local businesses, and prison decrees.

In Ecuador, the beginning of the current social crisis was due to fuel subsidy cuts, which more than doubled the price of gasoline and diesel. As a result, protests began to arise between indigenous peoples and the population in the capital of Quito, who occupied the streets and blocked highways.

These conflicts have caused almost a dozen deaths, and thousands of people getting hurt. The government has also transferred its capital from Quito to Guayaquil.

The Elections in Bolivia and Argentina

Contrary to Chile and Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina have relatively social stability, even during election time.

The Bolivian democratic republic held elections that gave victory to indigenous leader Evo Morales, who defends agrarian reform and economic nationalization, combined with international cooperation with the private sector.

Even though the OAS has been investigating the election process, Morales still appears to be the most competitive candidate.

At last, the representative democracy in Argentina has gone through an election process that has elected the Peronists Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Kirchner.

Having avoided the reelection of Maurício Macri, the Peronists are historically committed to social justice and state interventionism.

Macri has left Argentina with five negative macroeconomic factors: i) deterioration of its dollar reserve; ii) significant currency devaluation; iii) new government debt with the IMF; iv) an inflation rate of around 40%; v) an unemployment rate of 10%.

The Peronists will have a short period to deal with this scenario.

Conclusion

To sum it up, here are a few brief considerations we can make about this last October in Latin America:

  1. The Latin American democracy has an ongoing potential of transition between political and party elites in each electoral cycle of Latin America.

(Written by Guilherme Lazzari and André Frota)

The Brazilian Observer

Brazil’s environmental issues, foreign policy, and diplomacy explained to the world.

Guilherme Lazzari

Written by

Content marketing creator and freelance writer. Singer/songwriter. https://guilhermelazzari.com | https://www.youtube.com/urbanites

The Brazilian Observer

Brazil’s environmental issues, foreign policy, and diplomacy explained to the world.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade