by PRABHAT PATNAIK
Map of Latin America IMAGE/Google
The Left upsurge in Latin America appears to be abating. In October 2015 Jimmy Morales, the conservative candidate in Guatemala, defeated the Left-leaning Sandra Torres in the presidential elections. On November 22, Mauricio Macri, the conservative presidential candidate in Argentina, defeated Daniel Scioli, his Peronist rival, by a narrow margin, to bring to an end a long period of Left ascendancy under Presidents Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. On December 6, the party of Nicolás Maduro, the successor to Hugo Chávez and the legatee of the Bolivarian Revolution, lost control of the Venezuelan parliament after 17 years. And in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff, the successor to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is not only engaged at present in an impeachment battle, but has also seen a sharp decline in her popularity.
True, within the general Leftward shift in Latin America, there were very important differences, with Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador (not counting Cuba which is in a separate category altogether) being much more clear in their Left orientation than Brazil and Argentina; hence, it may be argued that, leaving aside the defeat of Maduro’s party, the “core Left” still retains its dominant position. It is also true that, whether we take the “core Left” or merely Left-leaning formations, the Left in a general sense still rules large parts of the continent. Even so, however, the fact that the Left upsurge is abating cannot be denied. And it can hardly be any consolation that in central America where there are several right-wing governments, including in particular in Mexico, a similar loss of support for such governments, all of whom are enmeshed in deep socio-political crises, is also evident.
No doubt, the world capitalist crisis has had a devastating impact on Latin America (on this more later) which has plunged all incumbent governments, whether of the Right or of the Left, into serious crisis; but the Left which is supposed to look beyond capitalism, and hence not to flinch from attempting structural reforms, should have been in a position to recognise this challenge and take appropriate counteracting measures. The fact that it has not done so is a matter of concern, quite irrespective of how well or badly the Right is faring wherever it is in power. And this brings us to the central limitation of the Left upsurge in Latin America.
In general, neo-liberalism had come to Latin America either under military regimes or under extremely authoritarian political regimes. And the adverse economic impact of neo-liberalism upon large masses of the population had arisen not because of any world capitalist crisis but because of Latin America’s own specific problem, namely, a domestic elite that shifted its wealth to American banks under the new conditions of “economic liberalisation”. The cause of Latin America’s debt crisis lay there, not in any deterioration of the global situation but in the fact that the country had to borrow from American banks in order to finance a capital flight back to the very same banks. In fact it has been estimated that as much as 60 percent of Latin American debt was incurred for financing the flight of capital by the Latin American rich to the metropolitan banks. The debt crisis in turn brought “conditionalities” that hurt the poor and even the middle classes. Neo-liberalism in Latin America in other words was associated both with political authoritarianism (including of the most murderous kind) and severe economic hardships for the people.
The Left in Latin America was thus entrusted with two historic tasks; and the upsurge of the Left was because it alone was capable of fulfilling these two tasks and carried credibility with the people on this score. These two tasks were: the restoration of democracy, and the amelioration of the people’s suffering under neo-liberalism. The fact that in country after country, Left political formations of various shades were elected to power by the people was because Left activists had suffered death, torture and incarceration under authoritarian regimes, and through it all had steadfastly opposed neo-liberalism while demanding democratic rights and institutions.
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