2018 will be remembered as the year of elections, with exciting Midterms in the US, most countries in Latin America holding general elections, and snap elections from all around the World, the geopolitical landscape changed a lot during the year. Let’s go through some of the most surprising, shocking, and game changers for Latinxs and Spaniards.
Venezuela
Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez’s successor, ran for the second time for a six year term. He won with a solid 67.8% of popular vote. Amazing, right?
@nicolasmaduro
Why is it important?
There’s probably nothing surprising about the result itself given that Venezuela is deep into an economic and humanitarian crisis without an end on sight, and Maduro adds himself to a list of authoritarian leaders around the World. However, the level of sham involved in this election resulted in public outcry from a number of countries and organizations both at home and abroad, including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States. The turnout was as low as 25% and there were a number of irregularities too big to ignore, which means this was a new low even for Maduro, and yet..here we are again, with Maduro still calling himself Señor Presidente.
Costa Rica
Last April, Costa Rica held a second round of elections and people around Latin America were nervous. For the first time ever, an evangelical Christian outsider had achieved widespread support and was one of the candidates who received most votes during the first round.
@carlosalvq
As a deputy, Fabricio Muñoz had been outspoken against (you guessed it!) same-sex marriage, abortion, in vitro fertilization, and “gender ideology,” whatever he meant by that. He then appealed to a broad base that looked for an alternative against the incumbent party’s leftist candidate, Carlos Alvarado. Polls predicted Muñoz’s victory, but he ended up losing by a landslide, allowing Alvarado to continue his predecessor’s policies and preventing the Costa Rican Trump to come into power.
Why is it important?
Costa Rica, the small country between Nicaragua and Panama, has called itself the Switzerland of Central America since the abolition of its Army in 1948 and has a much more stable economy than other countries within the region. This election shook Costa Ricans themselves, not least because they probably saw themselves reflected in the context of the World in which a ultraconservative came so close to winning. I guess it goes to show how the right wing wave might reach even the smallest corners. Talk about a close call, huh?
Andalusia, Spain
Spain had mostly eluded the European recent rise of right wing populism, and while it still hasn’t gathered much support, Andalusia’s local elections were a total gamechanger. Andalusia, a stronghold of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), held snap elections with a shocking result. PSOE, left of center, suffered a surprising setback, from 47 to 33 seats, and the far-right party, Vox, took home a total of 12 seats in the local Parliament.
@vox_esWhy is it important?
Vox was founded as recently as 2013 and had remained pretty much a fringe party for most of this time. Until now. As a self-fashioned right wing and Christian group, Vox is pro-life, anti same-sex marriage, anti-islam, anti-feminist, ant-immigration, anti… you get the picture. These may be a symptom of the far-right’s return to Spain as this is the first party of this nature to gain representation since the end Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship. This also means right of center parties now sum up absolute majority in Andalusia, thereby ending PSOE’s 36 year rule in the region. It’s not looking good.
Brazil
This is by far the most unsettling election of all. Afters years of political unrest in Brazil, which involved the biggest corruption scandals ever, more than 57 million people took a conscious decision to vote for Jair Bolsonaro, an open homophobe, misogynist, racist, anti-environment military ex-captain.
@jairmessiasbolsonaro
Why is it important?
Brazil doesn’t exactly share Europe’s strong democratic institutions, having had their last military dictatorship in the 1980’s. So having an ex-military openly assume himself as an antagonist to Human Rights is all the more alarming and should be taken seriously, since this marks a strong turning point after more than fifteen years of social democracy in Brazil. Bolsonaro is, like others on this list, his countries’ equivalent of Trump: liar, populist, conspiracy theorist. Beware his inflammatory rhetoric.
Mexico
Not all elections were necessarily depressing. Charismatic, yet controversial Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) won Mexico’s election in July by a whopping 53%. Pretty much all polls and pundits anticipated his victory but the magnitude of voters’ support, specially in regions were he had not been so popular on his previous two attempts towards becoming president (2006 and 2012), was a special kind of surprise. Moreover, Morena, the Party he founded only six years ago, took both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico’s House of Representatives) plunging each of the other parties into a crisis of their own and consolidating power for him.
@exhsWhy is it important?
Whatever you may think of AMLO, there are facts we can all agree on. First of all, it was a huge step towards democracy. For the first time, Mexico held a controversy-free election day. That is, not only was there a clear winner, but the other three contestants (who were way behind in votes) conceded within the first moments of preliminary results, something never seen before in a country where rivals usually dispute the elections’ legitimacy (ahem… AMLO). Also, a shout out to Enrique Peña Nieto, the disastrous incumbent president at the time, for not meddling (too much) in favor of his party’s candidate (which was something of a Mexican tradition, as well). Instead, he at least decided to stay mostly out of it and pave the way for AMLO’s much desired victory.
AMLO has gathered many enemies over the years for his use of left wing, anti-corruption and anti-establishment rhetoric, and even improvised policies. One thing is for sure, though: rather than using hateful rhetoric like –other people– he won people’s votes with a hopeful discourse. We know he represents a break from the old establishment, for better or for worse.
………
It’s hard to keep up with so many changes, but a trend is clear: after years of welfare state, or attempts of it, and the biggest economic crisis in decades, the pendulum is swinging to the right. It’s too soon to call, so let’s just stick to the facts for now and wait to see how it all plays out.
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If you liked this article, why not read the following?
The 29 Most Shocking World Events That Defined 2018
Jair Bolsonaro Might Be Brazil’s Next President, And I Am Scared
4 Issues To Keep In Mind Now There’s A New Man In Charge In Mexico
