Mexico delivers another defeat to the status quo in Latin America

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MEXICO CITY – The presidential election in Mexico, which has ruined the party that ruled the country for more than 70 years, was the latest in a series of meteoric defeats for parties in Latin America

. Elections in the region have resulted in decisive losses for political parties of all political stripes.

But while corruption, violence, and inequality have been major problems in every country, no ideology or problem explains the rejection of institutional policies. Voters, say badysts, are simply looking for new options, or at least different options.

Some countries, like Mexico, have turned left; others, like Colombia and Chile, right. Often, the movement is in the opposite direction to the party in power, but not always, as was the case in Costa Rica and Ecuador.

What voters seem to have in common is higher expectations and more pressing demands. The Latin American nations, whose middle clbad has grown over the past two decades, are demanding more from their leaders.

"I just think that there is a tendency to consider Latin America as a left-right divide". Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "I think the sharpest cleavage is about good governance."

Recent elections in Chile and Colombia, where voters have chosen more conservative candidates to replace Presidents Michelle Bachelet and Juan Manuel Santos, have created a general sense of frustration. 19659008] A similar rejection of the status quo makes the next Brazilian Presidential Contest the most unpredictable and most fragmented in recent history.

In Mexico, the election Sunday of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a thrifty leftist gunman, opposed political change to the right in Latin America that took root over the last four years . The movement came as a leftist movement that has emerged over the past decade, known as the Pink Tide, has receded.

López Obrador won a resounding victory on Sunday night with more than 50% of the vote, and his party, Morena, showed a remarkable performance in legislative and legislative elections. The defeat was particularly acute for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which finished in third place in the presidential and congressional elections.

López Obrador was able to take advantage of voters' anger at corruption and inequality, which some blamed on market policies that did not raise the income of the vast majority of people.

a technocratic model and they have not responded to social demands, "said Daniel Zovatto, the director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Institute for Democracy and Democracy. 39, electoral badistance. "Yesterday was a real earthquake to release this pressure."

The election exalted left-wing leaders of the old guard in the region.

President Evo Morales of Bolivia said in a statement that he was certain that Mr. López Obrador's decisive victory will mark a new page in the history of dignity and sovereignty in Latin America.

Venezuela's autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, called the election "a triumph of the truth about lies". But to consider Mr. López Obrador as a standard Latino-American leftist in the mold of Hugo Chávez, the predecessor of Mr. Maduro, or Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president of Brazil, may be a misinterpretation of Mr López Obrador. As Mayor of Mexico City in the early 2000s, he worked closely with the private sector and left office with an 80% approval rating. While his policies are focused on social welfare, he promises to respect the market economy.

Daniel Lansberg-Rodríguez, an badistant professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, said the victory of Mr. López Obrador and a repudiation of the status quo.

"It was an indignant election," said Lansberg-Rodríguez. "It was the rejection of a model of government, and López Obrador was able to exploit this outrage in a way that he had failed to do previously by doing this kind: that you had five or six administrations of technocrats educated in the United States who have absolutely failed to stem corruption and improve your life, and here I am here not only to reform this statu but for the sake of breaking it down. "

For some in the region, López Obrador represents a new pragmatic approach. left, which remains anchored in social programs but sees a role for private enterprise in its broader attempt to end poverty. "In some of these electoral processes across the region, we are witnessing the redefinition of left-wing projects." Rafael Rojas, Cuban historian and professor at the CIDE, a University of Mexico City

Indeed, Marta Lagos, director of the survey organization Latinobarómetro, said that it would be a mistake to see the victory of Mr. López Obrador On the contrary, she said, it is a striking illustration of the tumultuous faith that Latin Americans have in democracy, the establishment of parties and institutions.

"In Latin America, democracy has not been consolidated" Ms. Lagos, based in Santiago, Chile. "There is a desperate search for someone who promises to do the right thing, and people elect leaders who show a magic wand."