BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing extremist, won Colombia’s presidential election Sunday on a promise to crack down on drug gangs and guerrilla groups. He defeated left-wing opponent Iván Cepeda. The victory is the latest in a string of electoral losses for the Latin American left stretching back more than a year. The pattern is unmistakable.
What some analysts once called a regional leftist tide has reversed. Voters are choosing candidates who talk security first and welfare second — or not at all.
The shift is reshaping politics from the Southern Cone to the Caribbean. Chile shows how far the pendulum has swung. Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast took office in March, ending a period of leftist governance.
Kast has openly praised the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, calling it a positive era. His policy agenda calls for cuts to education and welfare programs, paired with tax breaks for business.
It is a sharp turn from the progressive social agenda that dominated Chilean politics in recent years. Argentina’s situation is different, but the direction is the same. Right-wing populist Javier Milei has governed since 2023.
A vocal admirer of US President Donald Trump, Milei has staked his political future on austerity. Argentina’s economy is financially destitute.
Milei’s bet is that shock therapy — slashing state spending — can rescue it, even if the social cost is high. The broader stakes are clear. Across Latin America, voters are rejecting leftist platforms built on social welfare and redistribution.
They are choosing candidates who promise order, security, and fiscal discipline. This holds true even when those candidates carry baggage from authoritarian pasts.
Tough-on-crime messaging is cutting through. Economic shock therapy is finding an audience. The appeal appears practical, not ideological.
People want safety from violence. They want their economies to function.
Left-wing governments, in many cases, failed to deliver either. Colombia’s election was the most recent test. De la Espriella’s victory there confirms the trend is not an isolated event. It is a regional realignment.
The geopolitical chessboard south of the United States is being redrawn. What to watch next is how these right-wing governments govern.
Campaign promises are one thing. Running a country is another. Kast in Chile faces a fractured political landscape.
Milei in Argentina confronts an economy that has been in crisis for years. De la Espriella in Colombia must tackle entrenched drug cartels and guerrilla armies that have survived decades of state pressure.
The left, meanwhile, is searching for a response. Its traditional message of social justice and redistribution is losing at the ballot box. Whether it can adapt — and how — remains an open question.
For now, the momentum is with the right. Voters have spoken, again and again.
The message is blunt: they want order, and they are willing to accept hard measures to get it.
