Pink Tide

Year 2023 In Review For Latin American And The Caribbean

December 18, 2023 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Caribbean, Fascism, Latin America, Monroe Doctrine, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide, Rightwing Politics, US Sanctions

December 2 marked the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, which proclaimed US dominion over Latin America and the Caribbean. Left-leaning governments in the hemisphere have had to contest a decadent but still dominant USA. Challenges in the past year include a world economic slowdown, a continuing drug plague, and a more aggressive hegemon reacting to a more volatile and disputed world order. The progressive regional current, the so-called Pink Tide, slackened in 2023 compared to the rising tide of 2022, which had been buoyed by big wins in Colombia and Brazil.

Australian, Latin American Leaders Demand End To Assange Prosecution

September 27, 2023 Chip Gibbons, The Dissenter. Resist! Australia, Brazil, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Latin American, Pink Tide, Press Freedom, Whistleblowers

During their addresses to the UN General Assembly, both Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Honduran President Xiomara Castro called for Assange to be freed. Lula stated, “It is essential to preserve the freedom of the press. A journalist like Julian Assange cannot be punished for informing society in a transparent and legitimate way.” Castro struck a similar chord, calling Assange a “faithful defender of free expression.” Both Lula and Castro are left-wing leaders who were elected as part of what’s been dubbed in Latin America as a second or resurgent “Pink Tide." Lula had previously served as Brazil’s president during the original Pink Tide.

Brazil’s President Lula Is Back – And Bolsonaro Fled To Florida

January 3, 2023 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Resistance Report Brazil, Lula da Silva, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide

Lula da Silva has returned as president of Brazil, the world’s sixth-most populous country. This will cause a major geopolitical shift. Meanwhile, far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida, fearing legal consequences for his corruption. Multipolarista spoke with Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier about what Lula’s third government means for Latin America and the world. In his speech before the congress at his January 1 inauguration, Lula he stressed that everyone has the “right to a dignified life, without hunger, with access to employment, health, education.” He said his “life mission” is to guarantee that every Brazilian has three meals a day. As president, Lula said he is a “representative of the working class” who “promotes economic growth in a sustainable way and to the benefit of all, especially those most in need.” He committed himself to the “widest social participation, including workers and the poorest in the budget.”

Ten Surprisingly Good Things That Happened In 2022

December 24, 2022 Medea Benjamin, People's Dispatch. Educate! climate crisis, Elections, Environment, Ethiopia, Global South, Indigenous Rights, Israel, Julian Assange, Labor Movement, Latin America, Media, New Years Eve, Palestine, Pink Tide

Continuing the wave of progressive wins in 2021, Latin America saw two new critical electoral victories: Gustavo Petro in Colombia and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil. When President Biden’s June Summit of the Americas excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, several Latin American leaders declined to attend, while others used the opportunity to push the United States to respect the sovereignty of the countries in the region.

The Volatility Of US Hegemony In Latin America, Part III

December 4, 2022 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Latin America, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide, US Imperialism

US and other western central banks – what Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega calls the “gang of assassins who control the global economy” – maintained low interest rates for much of the last decade which encouraged countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to take out large loans. Starting around 2021, interest rates were slowly raised. Coincident, the pandemic hit and developing countries were forced to go further into debt to fund Covid measures and cushion the effects of the economic dislocation. In these volatile times, the value of the US dollar has increased on international markets. For developing nations, this has meant higher interest payments coupled with capital flight to US financial markets in particular.

The Volatility Of US Hegemony In Latin America, Part I

December 2, 2022 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Latin America, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide, US Imperialism

Latin America and the Caribbean have again began to take on a becoming pink complexion, all the more so with June’s historic electoral victory in Colombia over the country’s long-dominant US-backed rightwing and a similar reverse in Brazil in October. These electoral rejections of the rightwing followed left victories last year in Peru, Honduras, and Chile. And those, in turn, came after similar routs in Bolivia in 2020, Argentina in 2019, and Mexico in 2018. This electoral wave, according to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, speaking at the Climate Summit in November, “open[s] a new geopolitical age to Latin America.” This “Pink Tide” challenges US hemispheric hegemony, whose pedigree dates back to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine.

National Lawyers Guild Calls For Solidarity With Colombia

May 28, 2022 National Lawyers Guild. Resist! Colombia, Elections, International Solidarity, Pink Tide

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) joins statements concerning the upcoming presidential elections in Colombia. We implore the current government and its functionaries to abide by the will of the people and ensure the safety of members of El Pacto Histórico regardless of the election outcome. We also reaffirm our solidarity with progressive organizations and individuals doing accompaniment and electoral observation work in Colombia. This historic election will take place on May 29, 2022 and is part of a highly contested race in which el Pacto Histórico presidential candidate Senator Gustavo Petro, and his vice-presidential running mate, Afro-Colombian Goldman Prize winner Francia Márquez Mina, have emerged as the front-runner in the polls.

Petro Bulletproofs Campaign Amid Assassination Fears

May 23, 2022 Kawsachun News, Resumen English. Educate! Colombia, Elections, Pink Tide, State Violence

With just two weeks until the election, Colombia’s leading presidential slate is making an international appeal after receiving death threats on the campaign trail. The Pacto Historico ticket penned a letter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in which they ask for guarantees, after receiving death threats and intimidating which have been dismissed by Colombian officials. On May 2, Gustavo Petro suspended scheduled visits to the coffee going region for security reasons, citing information he received on a possible assassination attempt from the criminal organization ‘La Cordillera’. The letter also states that his VP pick received three death threats in early April.

2021 Latin America And The Caribbean In Review: The Pink Tide Rises Again

January 1, 2022 Roger Harris, Counter Punch. Create! Caribbean, Foreign Policy, Latin America, Pink Tide

US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean continued in a seamless transition from Trump to Biden, but the terrain over which it operated shifted left. The balance between the US drive to dominate its “backyard” and its counterpart, the Bolivarian cause of regional independence and integration, continued to tip portside in 2021 with major popular electoral victories in Chile, Honduras, and Peru. These follow the previous year’s reversal of the coup in Bolivia. Central has been the struggle of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) countries – particularly Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua – against the asphyxiating US blockade and other regime-change measures. Presidential candidate Biden pledged to review Trump’s policy of US sanctions against a third of humanity.

Arce-Castillo Socialist Alliance For South America, Part II

July 26, 2021 Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Popular Resistance. Educate! Bolivia, Peru, Pink Tide, Socialism

Arce in Bolivia and Castillo in Peru face some similar challenges: paralyzed economies, the exhaustion of some sources of income such as natural gas and the emergence of others (e.g. lithium); the pandemically-related rise in poverty; deep social divisions between rich and poor and between well-endowed areas and areas less fortunate; a historical legacy of ruling class entitlement; health and education systems in great need of additional resources, especially in the poorer and more remote regions; environmental challenges such as the destruction of the Amazon rain forest; the insistent pressure for access and profit by multinational corporations, especially in the extractivist industries; the need to fortify and expand national institutions and the role of the State in the national economy; the always looming threat of the regional hegemon, the USA and its allies, both local and global, which, when angered sufficiently stifle economic and political development through the application of sanctions and financing of local “pro-democracy” movements.

Arce-Castillo Socialist Alliance For South America, Part I

July 25, 2021 Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Popular Resistance. Educate! Bolivia, Peru, Pink Tide, Socialism

On July 28, 2021, Pedro Castillo, son of illiterate Andean peasants will be inaugurated as President of Peru, celebrating the victory of his socialist party Perú Libre in the elections of June. Peru has strong historical ties to other regional powers, most notably Ecuador and Bolivia. Castillo’s victory follows by two months the swearing in of Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza as President of Ecuador in May. Although Lasso is center-right, he will be constrained by the continuing hold over Ecuador’s 137 seat assembly of allies of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) which maintains the largest bloc with 49 seats, and the leftist Pachakutik party which has unprecedented indigenous influence, holding about 45 seats in alliance with the center-left Democratic Left party.

Lawfare Threatens To Derail Presidential Election In Ecuador

February 16, 2021 William Camacaro and Frederick B. Mills. Educate! Ecuador, Elections, Pink Tide, US Regime Change

On February 7, the progressive presidential candidate for the Union of Hope Alliance (UNES) party, Andrés Arauz, won first place in Ecuador’s presidential election; this is uncontested. Arauz garnered 32.71% of the vote; right-wing former banker Guillermo Lasso 19.74%; and the “Indigenous” candidate, Yaku Pérez 19.38%. Since Arauz’s margin of victory was less than the required 40% plus at least ten points more than the closest competitor, a runoff is scheduled for April 11th. With the UN calling for transparency and Pérez contesting the outcome, Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has agreed to conduct a partial recount to verify the second place contender.

Ecuador: Presidential Elections Could Bring Back The Citizens’ Revolution

February 3, 2021 Danny Shaw, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Create! Ecuador, Elections, Pink Tide, Rafael Correa

On February 7, Ecuador will hold elections for President and for its legislative body, with 137 positions to be decided for the National Assembly. Though 16 presidential candidates participated in the debates, there are three major candidates. Andrés Arauz and his vice presidential candidate, Carlos Rabascall, represent La Unión por la Esperanza (The Union of Hope, UNES), what was Alianza País led by former president Rafael Correa before the party split in 2017. Guayaquil banker Guillermo Lasso and Alfredo Borrero are the candidates for the conservative alliance Creando Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities, CREO). Carlos “Yacu” Pérez is the candidate of the indigenous Pachakutik Party.

Maradona: The Bolivarian Soccer Genius

November 27, 2020 Danny Shaw and William Camacaro, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Educate! Anti-Imperialism, Latin America, Pink Tide, Socialism

The fighting peoples of the world lost a humble legend yesterday. Diego Armando Maradona was 60 years old. Arguably the greatest soccer player to ever grace the pitches, the spirited striker combined unparalleled skills in his sport and an unflinching outspokenness before oppression. No other sports figure’s public statements and transformation has equally captured the changing momentum across Latin America. The hundreds of thousands of tributes being paid throughout the world portray a particular image: Maradona in close solidarity with the biggest progressive leaders of the social reformist wave embraced by the peoples of Latin America, the so called Pink Tide.

Talk Of Another Pink Tide

November 3, 2020 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. Create! Latin America, Pink Tide, Socialism, US Regime Change

The election of Luis Arce in Bolivia last month has been much celebrated in circles where people of humane good will gather. This is as it should be: Arce was economics and finance minister in the socialist government of Evo Morales and was the violently deposed president’s chosen successor to lead his Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS. Arce’s victory, by a thumping 52-percent to 31-percent, reversed one of the bolder and nastier of the many right-wing coups in Latin America the U.S. has led, cultivated, fomented, instigated, what-have-you since the early decades of the last century.

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