BOGOTÁ, Colombia — In Chile, a tattooed former student activist won the presidency with a promise to oversee the most profound transformation of Chilean society in decades, broaden the social safety net and shift the tax burden onto the wealthy.
In Peru, the son of poor peasants propelled to victory on a vow to prioritize struggling families, feed the hungry, and correct longstanding inequalities in access to health care and education.
In Colombia, a former rebel and former legislator was elected the country’s first left-wing president, promising to stand up for the rights of indigenous, black and poor Colombians while building an economy that works for all.
“A new story for Colombia, for Latin America, for the world,” he said in his victory speech to thunderous applause.
After years of tilting to the right, Latin America is hurtling to the left, a turning point that started in 2018 with the Election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and could culminate in a left-wing candidate’s victory in Brazil later this year, leaving the region’s six largest economies behind by leaders elected on left-wing platforms.
A combination of forces has propelled this new group to power, including an anti-sedentary enthusiasm driven by anger at chronic poverty and inequality, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic and exacerbated frustration among voters who have expressed outrage against incumbents. candidates .
But just as new leaders take office, their campaign promises have collided with a bleak reality, including a European war that has increased the cost of everyday goods, from fuel to food, made life more painful for those already suffering. voters and much evaporates from the goodwill that presidents once enjoyed.
Chilean Gabriel Boric, Peruvian Pedro Castillo and Colombian Gustavo Petro are among the leaders who rode to victory, promising to help the poor and underprivileged, but who face enormous challenges in meeting the high expectations of voters .
Unlike today, the last major left-wing shift in Latin America, in the first decade of the millennium, was propelled by a commodity boom that allowed leaders to expand social programs and move an extraordinary number of people into the middle class, leaving expectations were raised for millions of people. families.
Now that is middle class slide backand instead of a boom, governments are faced with pandemic-ridden budgets, mounting inflation fueled by the war in Ukraine, increasing migration and the increasingly dire economic and social impacts of climate change.
In Argentina, where leftist Alberto Fernández took over the reins from a right-wing president in late 2019, protesters took to the streets against rising prices. Even bigger protests recently erupted in Ecuador, threatening the government of one of the region’s few newly elected right-wing presidents, Guillermo Lasso.
“I don’t want to be apocalyptic about it,” said Cynthia Arnson, a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “But there are times when you look at this that it feels like the perfect storm, the number of things hitting the region at once.”
From August, when Mr. Petro takes over from his conservative predecessor, five of the six largest economies in the region will be led by leaders campaigning from the left.
The sixth, Brazil, Latin America’s largest country, could head in that direction in October’s national elections. Polls show that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a fervent leftist, is well ahead of right-wing incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
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New leaders in Colombia and Chile are much more socially progressive than leftists in the past, advocating a shift away from fossil fuels and advocating abortion rights at a time when the United States Supreme Court is moving the country in the opposite direction.
But all things considered, this group is extremely mixed, differing on everything from economic policies to their commitment to democratic principles.
For example, Mr Petro and Mr Boric have vowed to massively expand social programs for the poor, while Mr López Obrador, who focused on austerityis to reduce expenditure.
What does unite these leaders, however, are promises of profound change that in many cases face difficult and growing challenges head-on.
In Chile late last year, Mr Boric defeated José Antonio Kast, a right-wing incumbent politician with ties to Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet, by promising to ditch the neoliberal economic policies of the past.
But just months into his tenure, with an inexperienced cabinet, Congress divided, rising consumer prices and unrest in the south of the country, Mr Boric’s approval ratings have scuttled.
Ninety percent of poll respondents the polling station told Cadem this month they believed the country’s economy was stuck or declining.
Like many neighbors in the region, Chile’s annual inflation is the highest in more than a generation, at 11.5%creating a cost of living crisis.
In southern Chile, a land struggle between the Mapuche, the country’s largest indigenous group, and the state has entered its deadliest phase in 20 years, causing Mr Boric to change course on one of his campaign pledges and redeploy troops in the area.
Catalina Becerra, 37, a hiring manager from Antofagasta, northern Chile, said she “like many people of my generation” voted for Mr. Boric because Mr. Kast “didn’t represent me at all”.
“But I was not convinced by what he could do for the country,” added Ms Becerra. “He has not achieved what he said he would do.”
In September, Chileans will vote on a remarkably progressive constitution that enshrines gender equality, environmental protection and indigenous rights and is intended to replace a Pinochet-era document.
The president has tied his success to the referendum, which will put him in a precarious position if the draft is rejected, which polls say is the most likely outcome for now.
In neighboring Peru, Mr. Castillo rose from virtual anonymity last year, defeating Keiko Fujimori, a right-wing career politician whose father, former President Alberto Fujimori, ruled with an iron fist and introduced neoliberal policies similar to those of Chilean voters.
While some Peruvians only supported Mr. Castillo as a rejection of Ms. Fujimori, he also represented real hope for many, especially poor and rural voters.
As a candidate, Mr. Castillo promised to give farmers more subsidies, access to credit and technical assistance.
But today he barely manages to survive politically. He has ruled erratically, straddling his far-left party and the far-right opposition, a reflection of the rambunctious politics that helped him win the presidency.
mr. Castillo – whose approval rating has fallen to 19 percent, according to the Institute of Peruvian Studies – is now subject to five criminal investigations, has already faced two impeachment attempts and has been cycled by seven interior ministers.
The agricultural reform he promised has yet to be translated into concrete policy. Instead, price spikes for food, fuel and fertilizer hit its base the hardest.
Farmers are grappling with one of the worst crises in decades as they face the biggest planting season of the year with no widespread access to fertilizers, most of which they normally source from Russia but are difficult to obtain due to global supply disruptions such as consequence of the war.
Eduardo Zegarra, a researcher at GRADE, a research institute, called the situation “unprecedented.”
“I think this is going to be very dramatic and cause a lot of instability,” he said.
In a poor, hilly neighborhood in Lima, the capital, many parents skip meals so their children have more to eat.
“We voted for Castillo because we had hopes that his government would be different,” said Ruth Canchari, 29, a stay-at-home mother of three. “But he takes no action.”
In Colombia, Mr. Petro will take office with many of the same headwinds.
Poverty has risen – 40 percent of households now live less than $100 a month, less than half the monthly minimum wage – while inflation is soaring almost 10 percent.
Despite widespread financial fear, Mr. Petro as he prepares for office, having provided him with some support.
He has repeatedly called for national consensus, has met with his greatest political enemy, the right-wing former president Álvaro Uribe, and has widely respectedrelatively conservative and Yale-educated Secretary of the Treasury.
The measures could allow Mr Petro to rule more successfully than Mr Boric is saying, said Daniel García-Peña, a political scientist, and have allayed some fears about how he will try to revive the economy.
But given how quickly the honeymoon was over for others, Mr. Petro have little time to offer help.
“Petro needs to convince its voters,” said Hernan Morantes, 30, a Petro supporter and environmentalist. “Social movements have to be ready so that when the government doesn’t get through, or doesn’t want to get through, we are ready.”
Julie Turkewitz reported from Bogota, Colombia, Mithra Dat from Lima, Peru and John Bartlett from Santiago, Chile. Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogota.