[News Terms] The Waning 'Pink Tide' in Latin America

'Pink tide' refers to the phenomenon where parties advocating moderate socialism come to power in Latin American countries. It is expressed as pink, meaning relatively moderate compared to 'red,' the color representing socialism in Eastern Europe including the former Soviet Union.

From the late 1990s until November 2014, left-wing governments ruled in 10 out of 12 South American countries, excluding Paraguay and Colombia, lasting nearly 20 years. Since then, the pink tide has experienced cycles of decline and revival.

Brazilian President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva (left) and Argentine President Alberto Fern?ndez shake hands during a joint press conference held last January at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
[Photo by AFP/ Yonhap News]

In November 2015, the right-wing Mauricio Macri was elected president of Argentina; in December, moderate conservatives won the Venezuelan general election; in June 2016, right-wing Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was elected president of Peru; in August, Dilma Rousseff was impeached as president of Brazil; in March 2018, right-wing Sebasti?n Pi?era was elected president of Chile; and in October, far-right Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil, all signaling a decline of the pink tide.

However, in 2019, the election of Alberto Fern?ndez as president of Argentina marked the return of left-wing governments. Leftist administrations were subsequently established in Bolivia in 2020, and in Honduras, Peru, and Chile in 2021. In June last year, Colombia elected its first-ever left-wing president. With the election of left-wing Lula da Silva as president of Brazil in October, the pink tide was revived.

On the 30th of last month (local time), right-wing Santiago Pe?a was elected president of Paraguay, raising concerns that the pink tide may retreat again. Some media outlets point out that the end of the U.S. 'Title 42,' which allowed immediate deportation of illegal immigrants for COVID-19 prevention, has led to a surge of migrants from Latin America to the U.S., attributing one of the causes to the governance failures of pink tide countries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.