The shots at the ballot box plunge the regional left into confusion

CARACAS.- “If the people’s proposal wins in Ecuador and Peru, we will come back to the integrationist project of the great homeland of Chávez, Néstor Kirchner, Lula and Correa, since Unasur will be reborn and CELAC will be strengthened and with Runasur, which will integrate the peoples, it will emerge a plurinational America ”. Neither nor Bolivia. The prediction of Evo Morales not only was it not fulfilled, but the electoral defeat spread to his own country with the governorate elections.

The Puebla Group (GP) and its leaders struggled to digest the resounding electoral defeat suffered in the three Andean countries. Especially in Ecuador, where they took it for granted that they would all meet in May at the Carondelet Palace, with the possible participation of Nicolás Maduro, their main ally, of whom they are fervent defenders.

A reluctant defeat, as was evident on Sunday when the GP, led by Rafael Correa, threatened to extol a non-existent fraud: “Our election observation mission expresses its concern at the news related to the exit polls which is taking place. take place publicly as soon as polling day closes and this could distort information on the official results ”.

The group of leftist, populist and revolutionary leaders forgot that the Correismo had also commissioned its own exit poll, which reflected a technical connection between Lasso and Arauz. But one of his envoys to Quito, the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, even questioned, a blow to the first complaints of the former president Rafael Correa, both on the conditions of the poll and on the publication of the polls. .

Finally, in the middle of the afternoon of yesterday, they gave their arm to twist by qualifying as “extraordinary work” that carried out by the correista dolphin and his campaign team, guilty in large part of the historic return of the curator Guillermo Lasso .

In Peru, they didn’t do anything good either. Verónika Mendoza, candidate anointed with the approval of the leaders of the group who attended the mini-summit in La Paz in November on the occasion of the enthronement of Luis Arce, occupies sixth place in the presidential poll, below 8% , while it was one of the big favorites to go to waivers in June.

President Alberto Fernández and then vice-president of the Spanish government, Pablo Iglesias, anointed Mendoza and Arauz as candidates. The two leaders took advantage of this meeting to present a manifesto in which they accused the far right of the evils of the continent.

In Bolivia, the candidates of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) for the governorates of La Paz, Chuquisaca, Pando and Tarija unceremoniously fell to their rivals, prompting the convening of an emergency meeting. “Because? What happened? What has to be done? It’s a responsibility,” asked Evo Morales. The ruling party has conquered only three of the nine governorates at stake.

A terrible election on Sunday where Morales himself promised them so happy. After regaining power in Bolivia, the leaders of the GP and the revolutionary governments of Caracas and Havana marked Ecuador’s presidential elections in red. Without concealment, they called for the reconquest of the great homeland, first passing through the Carondelet Palace, and then following, victory by victory, the electoral rally of 2021: Peru, Nicaragua, Haiti, Honduras and Chile.

For 2022, at least two Crown Pearls have been reserved: Brazil, with the possible return of Lula da Silva, and Colombia with his favorite, Gustavo Petro..

“If we were to look at something specific after the Latin American Day on Sunday, I would highlight the reestablishment of the value of the election as the only measurable form of popular will. It also demonstrates the volatility of electoral preferences in the region and the diversity of competing ideological positions. National trends, Covid conditions and regional ideological alliances converge in the results and the results of these elections, ”concludes historian Armando Chaguaceda, specialist in revolutions.

“It definitely marks a loss for Chavismo as well. But Venezuela is more dependent on its allies outside the hemisphere than on the few who remain in the Americas, ”says analyst John Polga-Hecimovich.

In Caracas, the ruling party remained silent in the face of defeat, but Juan Guaidó, president in charge, celebrated in style: “We count on your support for the Venezuelan struggle. The union of those of us who want freedom and democracy for the region, threatened by dictatorships like Maduro’s, is vital ”.

Response from Lasso, who even argued that he would invite Guaidó to his inauguration and also pledged to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, was conclusive: “Today is a great day for freedom in the whole region”.

Without a doubt, a setback for Chavismo as they expected to increase their support. “Maduro is interested in any support he can get because it is a way to gain his legitimacy through a non-electoral channel. In addition, it reduces regional pressure and, therefore, supports the democratic opposition in Venezuela, ”says María Puerta Riera, an expert on international politics and the US government in Florida.