OPINION: A Year of Elections in Latin America

Thirteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean held presidential or legislative elections in 2018, beginning a year of major political transitions in some of the region’s most populous states, according to the Americas Society.

Reuters reported on Cuba’s elections for the National Assembly in March, after which members of the Assembly chose Miguel Díaz-Canel as the next president in April, marking the first time that the office has been held by someone other than Raúl or Fidel Castro since 1976.

Costa Rica and Paraguay both elected new presidents in April. The left-wing Citizens’ Action Party held onto power in Costa Rica with candidate Carlos Alvarado in an election that centered on an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling in favor of gay marriage, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Americas Quarterly reported that Mario Abdo Benítez of the right-wing Colorado Party won in Paraguay, continuing the party’s nearly uninterrupted rule over the country since 1947.

Colombians voted in two rounds in May and June, eventually electing Iván Duque from the right-wing Democratic Centre party. The Guardian reported that Duque defeated left-winger Gustavo Petro in a close election that focused on the peace accord with FARC rebels and the growing crisis in neighboring Venezuela.

Mexico held elections in July, choosing the left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his MORENA electoral alliance to govern the country. According to TeleSur, the election was a repudiation of the governing Institutional Revolution Party, as López Obrador campaigned as a political outsider against traditional parties, corruption, and economic neoliberalism.

Meanwhile, as the Caravel goes to print, the Economist has reported that Brazilians will go to the polls for the first round of a presidential election on October 7 with far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro leading pre-election polls.

Latin American countries have recently elected left- and right-wing candidates from incumbent parties and outsider political movements, defying attempts to classify elections as part of a region-wide political trend.