On of the stories I’ve been following is the rise of right-wing (conservative, free-market, whatever you prefer) parties and governments across the world. From the U.K. Guardian,
Bolivia’s presidential election will go to a runoff for the first time, with two rightwing candidates competing for the presidency – marking the end of nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).
The New York Times describes the leading candidate, Sen. Rodrigo Paz Pereira, 57, as a centrist. In any event, neither finalist is a leftist. Also contested in this election was the Bolivian legislature, both lower house and Senate, and the same anti-leftist trend held.
The runoff election for president will be held on October 19.
How big a deal was this? The Guardian reports,
Luis Arce, the deeply unpopular Mas president, chose not to seek re-election and instead put forward his interior minister, 36-year-old Eduardo del Castillo, who won just 3.16% of the vote.
Adding,
Some analysts described the shift to the right as being part of a broader “rightward turn” across South America, after the victories of Javier Milei in Argentina and Daniel Noboa in Ecuador.
But the analyst Gonzalo Chávez Alvarez said the result was a continuation of a well-established pattern in which Bolivian voters swung from left to right – and back again – approximately every 20 years.
To me, what’s remarkable is that, unlike in Venezuela, the election results will be allowed ot stand and power will be transferred. The usual run of things goes “one man, one vote, one time.” The idea being that once the electorate does it correctly (votes in socialism) future votes are unneeded or unhelpful.
Reuters takes up the same question,
The Bolivia result also may foreshadow a death knell for other left-leaning governments in Latin America, with elections looming in Chile in the coming months and in Colombia in the first half of 2026.
Many Bolivians, especially those who work in the informal economy, were struggling to make ends meet, said economist Roger Lopez.
Good luck!
