Latin America went from street protests to ultras politicians

In 2019 Latin America caught fire: tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras and other countries to demand a change in the way they are governed. Above all, he showed discontent with the political and party elites, who have failed to show – much less create – a better path for the hundreds of millions of poor in the region in recent decades.

The COVID-19 pandemic – and mandatory quarantines in some of those countries – slowed the momentum of the protests, but did not dampen public discontent. Today, that frustration and need for change have turned into votes for extreme parties and candidates. It is not necessarily a good thing because, although the democratic path shows that it continues to work, citizens’ bets on politicians who are assumed to be “anti-system” are more frequent. And dangerous.

The recent examples of Chile and Argentina are very clear: the far-right and far-left parties have just gained ground in the last elections, which could not have been expected a few years ago.

In Argentina, what the recent midterm elections showed is that people are fed up with traditional options and there is growing social discontent. According to the journalist Hugo Alconada Mon, “four out of 10 Argentines despise the system or, even more, pass on it.” The ultra-left has just become the third national force through the Left Front and the libertarian right, with its candidate Javier Milei, obtained third place in the city of Buenos Aires.

In Chile the situation is even more extreme: after months of protests that put the government in check, they voted for the creation of a Constituent Congress to create a new Constitution. This is not only equal on gender issues and inclusive with minorities, but a Mapuche indigenous woman is the one who presides over it. There are few similar examples in the region.

And despite that, in the recent presidential elections a candidate from the far right, José Antonio Kast, and one from the far left, Gabriel Boric, passed to the second round. The democratic center, in one of the supposedly more politically stable countries, has already managed to disappoint citizens so much that they are voting for those who promise unfulfilled goals and only exacerbate their prejudices. As the journalist Yasna Mussa points out in Post Opinion, today “the only constant is the unpredictable responses of societies tired of futures that do not arrive and of presents that do not change.”

To what is happening in the Southern Cone, we must add the madness that a subcontinent like Brazil has Jair Bolsonaro as president. And that in Central America the situation is almost unsustainable given the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the authoritarian government of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and the post-electoral conflicts and massive migrations that are expected after the elections this Sunday in Honduras.

The region is burning and it is better for the politicians of always to turn to see what happens in those countries to learn the lesson, before (even) more extreme options arise. And that the citizens vote for them.