Latin America Advisor

Benjamin Gedan, director of Latin America Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center: “The election of leftist candidates in recent years throughout Latin America—including in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Peru—was widely misinterpreted as evidence of an ideological transformation in the region. As it turned out, voters were mostly expressing anger at conservative incumbent parties. The so-called ‘new pink tide’ quickly sputtered, as antsy citizens directed their discontent at the new occupants of the presidential palace. The same dynamics are now at play in Argentina. The popularity of the libertarian Javier Milei primarily reflects the unpopularity of the ruling Peronist coalition and frustration with Argentina’s traditional political parties. Given the country’s prolonged economic stagnation and triple-digit inflation, it is no surprise that Milei’s tirades against the political ‘caste’ resonate with so many voters. Indeed, over the last eight years, Argentine voters watched both center-right and center-left coalitions try and fail to…”