Latin America’s Second Pink Tide Recedes
The latest leftward shift was shorter-lived and less accomplished than its predecessor.
Latin America's second so-called "pink tide" has come to an end, as right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella was inaugurated as Colombia's president on Friday. This marks a shift away from a wave of left-wing and socialist governments that dominated the region from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. Bolivia also secured a $1.9 billion IMF loan, and the United States ended deportation protections for Haitians.
In Colombia, multidimensional poverty fell to a historic low under former president Gustavo Petro, while Brazil significantly reduced food insecurity. However, without the tailwind of a commodities boom, these initiatives squeezed government budgets. While regional integration survived and thrived, several of these governments fell short on signature progressive pledges, such as Petro's proposal to negotiate with armed groups instead of using a militarized approach and Chilean President Gabriel Boric's plan to rewrite the constitution to replace the dictatorship-era one.
Regional integration, especially through the Capricorn Bioceanic Corridor, pushed for stronger economic ties within South America, independent of external powers like the United States and China.
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