By Patricia Lee Wynne*The defeat in Ecuador of President Guillermo Lasso in the regional elections of February 5 and the rejection of the referendum to reform the Constitution are the latest setbacks marking the decline of US influence in South America.Against the predictions of all polls, the Ecuadorian population rejected the referendum proposed by Lasso, which, as a first point, established the extradition of criminals to other countries, read, to the United States.In addition, the regional elections gave, for the first time in history, the victory to the left in Quito and Guayaquil, the two largest cities in the country.No Latin American country has agreed to send weapons to Ukraine, rejecting the Pentagons persistent requests (Photo internet reproduction)How the world has changed in 50 years: 2023 marks half a century since the coup dtat in Uruguay (June 27, 1973) and the coup by Augusto Pinochet and the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile (September 11 of the same year).A period in which the Southern Cone was filled with military governments, becoming a shadow cone under the auspices of the US.But December 8 also marks the 40th anniversary of the return of democracy in Argentina in 1983, which marks the moment the region began to shake off that heavy burden and leave behind that dark past imposed by Washington.Since then, democratic governments of different signs have succeeded one another in all Latin American countries: those of the return of democracy in the 1980s, those of the neoliberal era in the 1990s, the progressive governments at the beginning of this century, followed, for a shorter period, by neoliberal governments, which are being replaced, once again and at different speeds, in a dynamic that marks a progressive distancing from the dictates of the US.50 YEARS AGOFifty years ago, the continent was plagued by dictatorships.In Brazil, in 1964, the military overthrew President Joao Goulart.In Uruguay, a dictatorship was installed in 1973, as in Chile.In Bolivia, in 1971, General Hugo Bnzer ousted President Juan Jos Torres, who was later assassinated in Buenos Aires as part of the sinister Condor Plan that united the continents dictatorships to kidnap, torture, and assassinate.In Paraguay, Alfredo Stroessner remained in power for 35 years since 1958, and in Argentina, the military coup of March 24, 1976, initiated seven years of brutal repression and genocide, with nearly 30,000 disappearing.THE RETURN OF DEMOCRACYFrom the 1980s onwards, the panorama changed throughout the continent.The precedent was the Nicaraguan Revolution of July 19, 1979, which ended the 35-year dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.In Argentina, the military had to withdraw amid huge protest mobilizations, and the first democratic elections were held in 1983.In Bolivia, in 1982, Hernn Siles Suazo was appointed president, ending the military governments.In Uruguay, elections were held in 1984, and in Brazil, massive mobilizations demanding direct elections led to the removal of the dictatorship and direct elections and a new constitution in 1986.Stroessner was ousted in Paraguay in 1989, and Pinochet left in 1990.Thus, a broad period of democracy was opened throughout the continent.THE NEOLIBERAL ERAThe neoliberal order established in the world with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 80s arrived in the Southern Cone in the nineties of the last century with governments that applied to the letter the policies of privatizations, layoffs, and reduction of the role of the State imposed from Washington.Carlos Menem in Argentina (1990-1999), Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brazil (1995-2003), the governments of the Concertacin in Chile (1990-2006) continuators of the Pinochet doctrines of the Chicago Boys -, Alberto Fujimori in Peru (1990-2000), Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada in Bolivia in the 1990s, led the region once again to a wave of prostration and economic opening towards the US.PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENTSBut the wave of unemployment and the economic crisis generated by the policies of the 1990s provoked huge mobilizations and discontent throughout the region, which led to the end of these governments.In Venezuela, in the 1998 elections, Hugo Chavez won, faced a coup dtat, and governed until his death in 2013.In Argentina, in December 2001, President Fernando de la Ra had to resign in the face of a general strike and mobilizations throughout the country.Five presidents succeeded each other for a week until Nstor Kirchner won the May 2003 elections.In Brazil, Lula won the elections in 2002, initiating a long government that lasted until 2011 and was prolonged with his successor, Dilma Rousseff, impeached in 2016 by Congress.In Bolivia, Evo Morales led the country from 2006 to 2019, establishing a new Plurinational Constitution.In Uruguay, the Frente Amplio governed from 2005 with Tabar Vzquez, Pepe Mujica, and again Vzquez until 2020.In Ecuador, Rafael Correa was in power from 2007 to 2017.During these first years of the century, Progressive governments achieved important advances in reducing poverty and unemployment and recovering from the economic crisis of the 1990s.But, above all, they were a hard blow to George W.
Bushs administration when, at the Mar del Plata Summit in 2005, the presidents decided to say no to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), which was then the main US policy towards the region.THE NEOLIBERALS ARE BACKThe global economic crisis marked the end of the bonanza of the first years of the century, provoking again a reaction in Latin America that brought back neoliberal governments.Mauricio Macri in Argentina (2015-2019) indebted the country to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the tune of US$45 billion.In Brazil, the impeachment of Rousseff in 2016 brought her vice-president, Michel Temer, to the government and paid for the triumph of Jair Bolsonaro before the proscription and imprisonment of Lula in 2018.In Ecuador, Lenn Moreno, who succeeded Correa in 2017, had a pro-American agenda against the Government of the Citizen Revolution postulates.And in Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczinski (2016-2018) was the basis for creating the Lima Group, the US aircraft carrier to organize a coup dtat in Venezuela.THE PACIFIC TREMBLESBut the reign of these governments proved short-lived.The new political earthquake began in the Pacific, with social outbursts and mobilizations provoking the collapse of the traditional structures and parties that sustained power from the 19th century onwards.In Chile, the governments of the Concertacin and the subsequent governments of Sebastin Piera (2010-2014 and 2018 to 2022) maintained the economic policies of the dictatorship, leading the country to a serious economic crisis that exploded in 2019, when the social outburst occurred that ended up leading to the presidency of Gabriel Boric in 2022, defeating all the traditional parties.In Peru, from 2018 until today, there have been six presidents.In 2021, all the traditional parties were defeated, and a teacher of the interior, Pedro Castillo, triumphed, ousted in 2022 and succeeded by Dina Boluarte, who faces a colossal social mobilization demanding early elections and that they all leave, including Congress.In Bolivia, the short-lived coup dtat of Jeanine Aez in 2019 could not be sustained and gave way to the return of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) with Luis Arce in 2021.And in Colombia, the social outburst of 2021 led to the defeat of the traditional parties and the triumph, for the first time in history, of a leftist candidate, Gustavo Petro, leaving behind two decades marked by the governments of lvaro Uribe (2002-2010), his successor Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) and his disciple Ivn Duque (2018- 2022).In Ecuador, the dynamics of the defeat of the traditional parties seemed not to be fulfilled with the triumph, in 2021, of Lasso.However, the spectacular defeat of February 5 brings Ecuador back to the same flow that Latin American politics has been leaning towards in recent years.THE DECLINE OF US DOMINANCEIn 2019, Washington was emboldened and wanted to strike a blow of force with the attempted coup dtat in Venezuela, trying to impose the presidency of Juan Guaid and attempting an invasion from Colombia.All this with the support of the Lima Group, created in 2017 and driven, among others, by the rulers of Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia.Three years later, Guaid has disappeared from Venezuelan politics, and the US negotiates directly with the government of Nicols Maduro the return of oil investments.The Lima Group collapsed amid protests in the streets of the Peruvian capital amid political instability.After spending 580 days in jail, Lula da Silva won back the presidency in October 2022 and reestablished relations with Venezuela, as did Colombia, which also recovered its ties with Nicaragua.The conclusion after these eventful 50 years is that the imperial power of the US, its ability to impose governments by hand, supported by the embassy, and in many cases by its troops, is increasingly weakened.Gone are the days of the School of the Americas, which trained candidates for dictators, for it no longer can appoint governments, promote coups dtat, or fill our countries with military bases.Other powers are bursting into Latin America.China, for example, has displaced the US as the main trading partner of Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, while it has become the second largest trading partner for other countries.And as for Russia, no Latin American country has agreed to send weapons to Ukraine, rejecting the Pentagons persistent requests.On the contrary, the governments of Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil have systematically repeated their calls for a negotiated solution to the conflict, refusing to be part of Washingtons offensive.With information from Sputnik