“Yesterday, the satan was right here. It smells like sulfur.” That is how Hugo Chávez, then president of Venezuela, opened his speech 20 years in the past on the United Nations Basic Meeting, referring to the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Chávez’s remarks got here on the top of Latin America’s “pink tide,” the wave of leftist governments that swept into energy throughout the area through the 2000s. At present, the political pendulum in Latin America is transferring in the wrong way. The left nonetheless holds energy in Mexico and Brazil, however rightists have taken over in Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and elsewhere. Even in Venezuela, Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, was seized by U.S. forces earlier this 12 months, and the interim authorities has charted a decidedly U.S.-friendly course. This week’s inauguration of conservative populist Abelardo de la Espriella as Colombia’s president solely continues the pattern.
The rise of Latin America’s proper is sweet information for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has taken a extra energetic curiosity within the area than another post-Chilly Warfare president. Trump and his aides have expressed hope that the brand new crop of ideologically aligned leaders will assist curb China’s affect within the Western Hemisphere. But when Washington desires to actually reassert its place within the Americas after years of neglect and consolidate a long-term geopolitical realignment, it might want to provide its neighbors a strong financial engagement agenda that may compete with Beijing’s guarantees of commerce and funding.
