Posted on 10/14/2026 7:44:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
While it technically started a few years ago, Latin America's rightward swing has been a hot topic in recent months. Most recently, we watched voters in Brazil defy the predictions and vote for Donald Trump ally Flávio Bolsonaro when the incumbent little socialist dictator Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had been leading the polls for quite a while. The two will match up in a runoff at the end of the month, and while the left is doing its best to go after the Bolsonaro family, the odds are in Flávio's favor.
Before that, Colombia rejected its first dance with socialism, electing Abelardo de la Espriella over Gustavo Petro's hand-picked successor. Peru, which is trying to put a decade of political volatility behind it, voted for the more conservative Keiko Fujimori.
Earlier in the year, Costa Rica voted overwhelmingly for Laura Fernández, which, contrary to popular belief, was not a swing to the right, but a continuation of the Rodrigo Chaves administration that came before her. What is important to note is that while she was projected to win, she ended up with a much more decisive victory than polls predicted.
In the few years leading up to 2026, countries like Panama, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, and El Salvador also made decisive changes or continuations with more center-right or conservative leaders.
What led to the swing? Pretty much the same things that led to us in the United States voting overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2024. I like to say that people were fed up with crime, corruption, and communism, which is a simplified answer, but it's true.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
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Author further observes…
“It’s also worth pointing out that Mexico remains the biggest leftist holdout (not counting the Cuban and Nicaraguan dictatorships, which could both crumble to pressure in the year to come). But we’re stuck with Claudia Sheinbaum for a while. She’ll just be very isolated. I also know that someone in the comments will mention Uruguay, which is the outlier here. Uruguay did elect a moderate left-wing government in 2024. Right now, it’s an oddly stable country that is not overly ideological and is not hostile toward the U.S. “
Amazing what happens when all those USAID dollars dry up.
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