Democracy in Latin America is in a critical state. But the attacks on democracy aren’t just coming from one side of the political spectrum; they are coming from both the right and the left.
In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega refuses to step down from power and continues to use paramilitary forces to hunt down and silence critics. With more than 300 deaths and hundreds more imprisoned, Nicaragua today is reminiscent of Nicaragua under the Somoza dictatorship, the same dictatorship Ortega, as the leader of the left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front, overthrew.
In Brazil, newly-elected far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly praised Brazil’s military dictatorship, and has hailed authoritarians like Peru’s Alberto Fujimori and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet. On the campaign trail he threatened his leftist political opponents with violence and imprisonment and has also threatened media outlets who report news unfavorable to him. And although Bolsonaro has only been in office for a little over a month, on his first day he signed executive orders threatening the rights and protections of Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community.
In Guatemala, President Jimmy Morales is looking to subvert the power of the country’s top courtin order to expel the CICIG; in Honduras, President Juan Orlando Hernandez has consolidated power through fraudulent election processes and the use of violence; and in Bolivia, President Evo Morales used the power of his Movement for Socialism party to allow him to seek re-election for a third consecutive time.