INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
By Patricia Lee Wynne*The defeat in Ecuador of President Guillermo Lasso in the regional elections of February 5 and the rejection of the
referendum to reform the Constitution are the latest setbacks marking the decline of US influence in South America.Against the predictions
of all polls, the Ecuadorian population rejected the referendum proposed by Lasso, which, as a first point, established the extradition of
criminals to other countries, read, to the United States.In addition, the regional elections gave, for the first time in history, the
victory to the left in Quito and Guayaquil, the two largest cities in the country.No Latin American country has agreed to send weapons to
(September 11 of the same year).A period in which the Southern Cone was filled with military governments, becoming a shadow cone under the
auspices of the US.But December 8 also marks the 40th anniversary of the return of democracy in Argentina in 1983, which marks the moment
the region began to shake off that heavy burden and leave behind that dark past imposed by Washington.Since then, democratic governments of
different signs have succeeded one another in all Latin American countries: those of the return of democracy in the 1980s, those of the
neoliberal era in the 1990s, the progressive governments at the beginning of this century, followed, for a shorter period, by neoliberal
governments, which are being replaced, once again and at different speeds, in a dynamic that marks a progressive distancing from the
dictates of the US.50 YEARS AGOFifty years ago, the continent was plagued by dictatorships.In Brazil, in 1964, the military overthrew
dictatorships to kidnap, torture, and assassinate.In Paraguay, Alfredo Stroessner remained in power for 35 years since 1958, and in
Argentina, the military coup of March 24, 1976, initiated seven years of brutal repression and genocide, with nearly 30,000 disappearing.THE
RETURN OF DEMOCRACYFrom the 1980s onwards, the panorama changed throughout the continent.The precedent was the Nicaraguan Revolution of July
19, 1979, which ended the 35-year dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.In Argentina, the military had to withdraw amid huge protest
the military governments.In Uruguay, elections were held in 1984, and in Brazil, massive mobilizations demanding direct elections led to the
removal of the dictatorship and direct elections and a new constitution in 1986.Stroessner was ousted in Paraguay in 1989, and Pinochet left
in 1990.Thus, a broad period of democracy was opened throughout the continent.THE NEOLIBERAL ERAThe neoliberal order established in the
world with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 80s arrived in the Southern Cone in the nineties of the last century with governments
that applied to the letter the policies of privatizations, layoffs, and reduction of the role of the State imposed from Washington.Carlos
continuators of the Pinochet doctrines of the Chicago Boys -, Alberto Fujimori in Peru (1990-2000), Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada in Bolivia in
the 1990s, led the region once again to a wave of prostration and economic opening towards the US.PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENTSBut the wave of
unemployment and the economic crisis generated by the policies of the 1990s provoked huge mobilizations and discontent throughout the
Brazil, Lula won the elections in 2002, initiating a long government that lasted until 2011 and was prolonged with his successor, Dilma
Rousseff, impeached in 2016 by Congress.In Bolivia, Evo Morales led the country from 2006 to 2019, establishing a new Plurinational
Rafael Correa was in power from 2007 to 2017.During these first years of the century, Progressive governments achieved important advances in
reducing poverty and unemployment and recovering from the economic crisis of the 1990s.But, above all, they were a hard blow to George W
Americas (FTAA), which was then the main US policy towards the region.THE NEOLIBERALS ARE BACKThe global economic crisis marked the end of
the bonanza of the first years of the century, provoking again a reaction in Latin America that brought back neoliberal governments.Mauricio
Macri in Argentina (2015-2019) indebted the country to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the tune of US$45 billion.In Brazil, the
impeachment of Rousseff in 2016 brought her vice-president, Michel Temer, to the government and paid for the triumph of Jair Bolsonaro
against the Government of the Citizen Revolution postulates.And in Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczinski (2016-2018) was the basis for creating the
short-lived.The new political earthquake began in the Pacific, with social outbursts and mobilizations provoking the collapse of the
country to a serious economic crisis that exploded in 2019, when the social outburst occurred that ended up leading to the presidency of
Gabriel Boric in 2022, defeating all the traditional parties.In Peru, from 2018 until today, there have been six presidents.In 2021, all the
traditional parties were defeated, and a teacher of the interior, Pedro Castillo, triumphed, ousted in 2022 and succeeded by Dina Boluarte,
who faces a colossal social mobilization demanding early elections and that they all leave, including Congress.In Bolivia, the short-lived
in 2021.And in Colombia, the social outburst of 2021 led to the defeat of the traditional parties and the triumph, for the first time in
parties seemed not to be fulfilled with the triumph, in 2021, of Lasso.However, the spectacular defeat of February 5 brings Ecuador back to
the same flow that Latin American politics has been leaning towards in recent years.THE DECLINE OF US DOMINANCEIn 2019, Washington was
and attempting an invasion from Colombia.All this with the support of the Lima Group, created in 2017 and driven, among others, by the
Peruvian capital amid political instability.After spending 580 days in jail, Lula da Silva won back the presidency in October 2022 and
reestablished relations with Venezuela, as did Colombia, which also recovered its ties with Nicaragua.The conclusion after these eventful 50
years is that the imperial power of the US, its ability to impose governments by hand, supported by the embassy, and in many cases by its
troops, is increasingly weakened.Gone are the days of the School of the Americas, which trained candidates for dictators, for it no longer
for example, has displaced the US as the main trading partner of Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, while it has become the second largest
trading partner for other countries.And as for Russia, no Latin American country has agreed to send weapons to Ukraine, rejecting the