U.S. President Donald Trump isn't shy about saying who he likes and dislikes in Latin America. Trump often praises right-wing populists like Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Argentinian President Javier Milei, but he is no fan of progressive Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. And he used the U.S. military to remove former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office, although Venezuela still has a leftist government under Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
According to University of Chicago political science professor Michael Albertus, the far right continues to make significant gains in that part of the world. And Albertus, writing for the conservative website The Bulwark, stresses that the "Trump playbook" is being used extensively in Latin America.
"The political landscape of Latin America has changed dramatically," Albertus explains. "Within the span of several weeks, two of South America's largest democracies have elected leaders from the far right. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the dictator who governed the country between 1990 and 2000, has apparently won a razor-thin runoff against leftist Roberto Sánchez. In Colombia, far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella defeated the candidate backed by the outgoing left-wing government of Gustavo Petro. These results follow a landslide victory in December by far-right candidate José Antonio Kast in Chile."
The political scientist continues, "Latin America is a complicated place, and each of these elections has its own national dynamic. But taken together, they tell a larger story of a resurgence in right-wing politics across the Andes."
Albertus describes that the "rightward shift" in Latin America as a "product of deeper forces reshaping the political landscape across the region" — including "a spiraling security crisis fueled by drug trafficking and organized crime" and a "migration shock centered on Venezuela."
"A new generation of right-wing politicians has learned — both from each other and from the Trump playbook — how to weaponize these forces to their advantage," Albertus observes. "And they have seized on the opening provided by mainstream parties that are either in collapse or that have earned a reputation for their incapacity to deal effectively with crime and migration. The question now for the defenders of liberalism globally is whether and how this can be contained."
Crime, according to Albertus, is a key factor in the wave of MAGA-like victories in Latin America.
"Chile's crime surge is real, even if modest by regional standards," the University of Chicago political scientist notes. "And hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants have provided a convenient scapegoat. Meanwhile, previous president Gabriel Boric's economic record was underwhelming: growth was anemic, inflation spiked in the aftermath of COVID, and many Chileans reported a desire to emigrate…. The combination of weakened institutions, metastasizing organized crime, and a Trump administration that has abandoned democracy promotion creates conditions in which democratic backsliding can happen quickly."