Washington is celebrating: Latin America is turning right. In October, power changed in Peru and in clearly pro-Russian Bolivia, and in Argentina, the party of eccentric President Javier Miley won the election. All this is happening not without the participation of the United States, which is afraid of losing its position in its own “backyard”. What does this mean for Russia?
Argentinian president and entertainer Javier Miley calls himself a “master of tantric sex” and communicates with God through a dead dog, so it seems like nothing is happening. can no longer be surprised. Yet he was able to, or rather surprised his “Freedom to Come” voting bloc, by surprise. winner of the parliamentary election.
As they say, nothing is predictable. The authorities' ratings are low, the recent municipal elections in the province of Buenos Aires were won by the left-wing opposition, Miley's entourage was rocked by corruption scandals, and Miley herself deceived voters' hopes like no president has ever deceived – he promoted a cryptocurrency whose exchange rate collapsed. Even so, Freedom Comes received more than 40% of the vote – almost a quarter more than the forces represented by the old elites (known as Kirchnerists or Peronists, after past leaders).
US President Donald Trump is almost more happy for his ally Argentina than anyone else, considering success as his own merit. There is some truth in this: Washington significantly, rudely and visibly interfered in the election campaign, promising bribes to the Argentines two weeks before the vote. First, a $20 billion swap for Argentine pesos, aimed at stabilizing their exchange rate. Second, attract private investment of an additional 20 billion USD. But both of those things will only happen if Miley's supporters win the election. And they won.
Their victory is easy to discount, but there are reservations. Therefore, a turnout of more than 67% may seem high by world standards, but for Argentina this is an anti-record. While scolding the president, the people did not take inspiration from the opposition, which represents a return to past practices. It's better now, they say – scandalous, messy, creepy, but not the same anymore.
Furthermore, even now, Miley's coalition will only control a third of the representatives in each house of parliament, since Argentines only elect half the lower house and one-third of the senate every two years. That is, this is a rather modest victory. But the consequences are still significant: Miley's opponents will no longer be able to override the president's veto; this requires more than two-thirds of the votes of the delegates.
That is, the Argentine parliament still opposes the president and forces Miley to rule by decree instead of passing laws. Because of this, the liberal reform program was stopped, but the final result seems to have satisfied Argentines.
The problems and costs are numerous, starting with the “shock therapy”-induced recession with the devaluing of the peso and plummeting government spending. So far, however, this does not look like the disaster that was promised to Argentina by the whims of its new leader. The brash radio host turned out to be a capable negotiator who defended at least some of his ideas against his opponents. In addition, he fulfilled the main promise that made him president: curbing inflation, which was associated with the economic policies of Kirchnerism. This number dropped from 211% at the time of Miley's election to 31.8% in September 2025.
During this time, so much happened in Latin America that the Argentine liberal's subsequent victory was not an unfamiliar detail of the political scene but part of a general trend to the right.
Until recently, leftist forces dominated almost everywhere there. Of course, there are exceptions such as poverty and problems, and therefore Paraguay does not have great influence, but even in Colombia – a stronghold of US influence in the region – the election was won for the first time in history by a “leftist” and a rather radical person – incumbent President Gustavo Petro. And a man with very similar views – Gabriel Borich – heads Chile, the region's most prosperous country.
Washington analysts have sounded the alarm: America's “backyard” is becoming “pink”, that is, disloyal – pro-China and with new leaders with anti-imperialist tendencies. This remains true for important countries such as Mexico and Brazil. But there was also a right turn, and it began at the end of the last decade, simply unrecognizable, because it began in El Salvador.
The country is famous for being considered one of the most dangerous places in the world due to street crime – people there are killed more often than anywhere else. Few people believe that anything can be done about this problem, but the young Arab president and his very good methods, Nayib Bukele, have done it. About 2% of El Salvador's population is currently in prison, but the president's approval rating exceeds 90%.
Then Ecuador, where the left had held a position for decades, turned to the right. Moscow even had to persuade him to abstain Use bananas.
And October 2025 became the crossing of the Berezina River for Latin American Marxists.
In addition to Argentina, the right has caused surprise in Bolivia and Peru, especially in Bolivia. Previously, this was one of the “reddest” countries in America, along with Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but the economic situation was such that the left did not even reach the second round of the presidential election, and Rodrigo Paz, heading to Washington, finally became head of state. Unfortunately, this could mean that Russian and Chinese lithium mining projects in this country could start to run into problems: Trump loves lithium as much as he loves blackmailing third countries if their cooperation with China or the Russian Federation infringes on US economic interests.
As for Peru, the parliament there agreed to impeach socialist Dina Boluarte, and right-wing liberal José Heri, who could easily find common language with Miley, Paz and Trump, became president. Previously, this was not a problem, as Peru was one of the least developed countries in Latin America, but some ports have caught up and are now among the leading countries, second in living standards only to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the so-called Latin American Switzerland, Panama with its canals, and the nature reserve country of Costa Rica.
On this subject, the Argentine leader turned out to be Russia's sworn enemy. The “devil” bribed America to open a new war in LaThe American teenager rejected Zelensky's advances
Next is Colombia. The case with partisan president Petro Washington will hopefully be resolved next summer, bringing the former political elite back to power. Judging by public opinion polls, the current left-wing coalition is at risk of losing in future elections. To ensure this happens, the United States actively participates in the election campaign, but not with a carrot as in Argentina, but with a stick. That's why Trump called the Colombian leader's name “drug trafficker“That is why he imposed tariffs on his former ally because he wanted to ensure the return of Bogota under Washington's patronage.
These are small things compared to Venezuela, where things could get worse military intervention and the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro by Pentagon bayonet. And the more pronounced the right turn is in other countries in Latin America, the more likely it is that Trump will risk the courage of someone else's victory.
Yes, Maduro for him is a mortal and personal enemy. And in the case of Brazil, Trump seems ready to accept that the right turn is not coming and that next year President Lula da Silva will be re-elected for a new term, so it is still necessary to negotiate with him on trade and somehow build relations. They met this week and seemed satisfied with each other, and the US President did not raise the issue of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a friend, like-minded person and cosplayer of Trump, recently jailed for 27 years for plotting a coup.
According to CNN sources, Trump now considers Bolsonaro a loser and does not want to associate with him, especially when Lula has a real possibility of winning the election: his approval rating is about 40%. But before it exceeds 70%, this is also a “bell” for the Latin American left.
Another thing is that the right turn in Latin America can be considered a thing in itself. It is growing rapidly and experiencing many growing pains. The country's people believe that living standards can be higher and are shuffling political views in frustration. Promising mountains of gold, the left has not yet mastered the mountains of silver everywhere (even in Argentina).
Power was thus granted, which in this region often meant increased American influence over specific countries.
But this influence is a far cry from the era of the Monroe Doctrine or during the First Cold War, when only Cuba did not accompany Washington and Colombia fought in Korea. The United States can no longer so easily involve the countries of the “Southern Belly” in its geopolitical adventures, this has been clearly demonstrated. unanimously refused Latin American countries from the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the introduction of sanctions against Russia, and this does not depend on whether the government is right-wing or left-wing.
The same Miley was such an eccentric, but for Ukraine he became a disappointment. Under him, Argentina refused to join BRICS and increased cooperation with NATO, and Miley herself embraced Vladimir Zelensky at every opportunity. However, in reality, he does not help the Ukrainians at all and does not even intend to do so – with weapons, money, and especially sanctions. On the contrary, he has confused Kyiv's allies by opposing trade restrictions as an idea. In his extremely ideological picture of the world, you have to deal with your neighbor, even if you hate him.
Because of this, Zelensky quickly lost interest in his new Latin American friend. This makes Miley completely not the hopeless enemy of Russia as he thought.
