In just over a week we have been able to see changes in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador that will define the course of the continent in the coming years.
In Argentina, on 10/27, citizens once again gave their support to the Peronists in the figure of Alberto Fernández, removing Mauricio Macri from the presidency, who has been in office for just under four years. Galloping inflation, the obligation to repay the largest historical loan given by the IMF of 57,000 million USD and the frustration of citizens between the promises made and their day to day have turned the ruling party upside down. Macri’s party, Together for Change, has neither achieved sufficient volume nor the interest of his compatriots to achieve the desired change
In Colombia there has also been a change with the victory of Claudia López for mayor of Bogotá. The leader of the Green Alliance will be in charge of a city that accounts for a fifth of the country and the second most important position after the Presidency. This victory represents a setback for the Centro Democrático party of President Iván Duque and the party that was until 2010, Álvaro Uribe. The warden López has been a standard-bearer with corruption, another issue on which it seems that there was significant weariness among the citizens of the country. What happens in Bogotá is logically a reference for the whole country
In Bolivia, since 10/20, riots have been taking place between those who defend Evo Morales and those who request either a second round or a repetition of the elections. Morales has been president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia since the December 2005 elections. He has managed to significantly reduce poverty and inequality in this country of just over 11 million inhabitants, but in recent years there has also been a progression in the division between the urban and rural population, which is the same as saying between the white and indigenous population with less and less coincidental interests.
In Chile, on October 4, the Chilean Ministry of Transportation announced a new increase in Metro fares, of 30 Chilean pesos, leaving the total value of the fare, at rush hour, at 830 pesos (just over one euro). Two days later, the students organized to avoid paying in a coordinated way. The reaction of the government of Sebastián Piñera is assuming an escalation of violence in which there is already talk of more than 11 deaths. After the four years of the government of Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018), the neoliberal economic theses and the Constitution returned with force from 1980, a great supporter of this model. Chile is a model economy in the area with a performance above the average for the continent, but what these revolts are showing again is that social inequality and the frustration of young people is very latent.
In Uruguay it seems that another electoral return is about to take place, in this case of right-wing opinion against left-wing ruling parties, which may mean the biggest change in fifteen years; In Venezuela there is no longer talk of a change in the government while progress is made in the dollarization of the country and in Ecuador there have been 10 days of agitated protests after the measures announced by President Moreno
What happens in Latin America?
It seems that the citizens want change and do not have much patience to wait for their wishes to be fulfilled. If the elected president is not capable of achieving the promised improvements in less than one legislature, he will see his position endangered now and in the future. The patience of the electorate is short
There is a broad layer of citizens of the American continent who, above all through training and the expectations created, thought that their lives were going to improve and the reality is being different.
In 2007 the crisis loomed through the economies with high per capita income and currently it seems that the political instability that always entails economic instability comes with the letter of introduction of emerging economies in this case of Latin America.
The Hold on Tigh entry: The current situation in Latin America: appeared first on the Economy Weblog.