The leftist governments of Latin America will begin 2025 with their once-vaunted unity strained and with many facing its own share of controversies at home.
The region’s leftist governments, most notably those elected in the 2022 electoral cycle, were once hailed by corporate media as a second “pink tide,” a moniker that once described the leftist governments of the early 2000s, such as that of late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. The class of 2022 and its allies has seen its much-touted ideological “unity” crash and burn following actions such as those taken by Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, whose “breach of trust” caused Brazil to snub Maduro out of a highly coveted spot in the anti-U.S. BRICS coalition.
Governments such as Chile’s and Colombia’s will begin the next year with low approval ratings while the three countries led by authoritarian regimes in the region – Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – will start January facing severe domestic problems caused by their respective regime’s socialist and/or communist policies.
Cuba is presently facing a dire humanitarian crisis that dramatically worsened throughout 2024. The disastrous communist policies of the Castro regime, which has ruled the island-nation for over six decades, pushed Cuba to the brink of complete ruin and created a humanitarian crisis many describe as worse than any of the many such disasters in recent Cuban memory. As is customary of the beleaguered communists, the Castro regime continues to avoid any responsibility in the near-destruction of Cuba and instead lays the blame on the United States’ “embargo.”
In an apparent state of frustration, Raúl Castro, the country’s true communist dictator who once claimed to “retire” from politics in 2021, demanded that his officials come up with solutions to Cuba’s communist-made disaster during the latest parliamentary session of the Cuban National Assembly. The 91-year-old typically only makes public appearances when the figureheads of his regime embarrass the Castros. They have done little in response to Castro’s call for solutions, resorting to openly begging its international sympathizers for money during a gathering of communists held by the French Communist Party in Paris.
In Venezuela, the socialist regime is preparing to swear in dictator Nicolás Maduro on January 10. Maduro proclaimed himself the “winner” of the fraudulent July 28 presidential election and refused to publish any form of documentation to demonstrate his alleged “victory.” The situation led to a new wave of international condemnation and nationwide protests that Maduro responded to with a deadly persecution campaign. United Nations experts accused the Maduro regime of committing crimes against humanity during the dissident crackdown.
The Venezuelan opposition, which heavily contested the claimed “results,” is preparing to swear in exiled 75-year-old diplomat Edmundo González as president of Venezuela on that same day in Caracas, the nation’s capital. It remains publicly unknown at press time how they will swear in González in Venezuela, as he fled the country in September and is living in exile in Spain after the Maduro regime issued an arrest warrant against him.
In Nicaragua, ruled by communist dictator Daniel Ortega, recent reports indicate that, other than a growing debt, Ortega and his regime have little to show in return for allowing China to significantly expand its influence on the country, handing over control of several of the country’s gold mines and signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Chinese Communist Party that has reportedly yielded little to no improvements to the nation’s ailing economy.
Bolivia enters 2025 still entangled in a power struggle between its socialist President Luis Arce and his former mentor, failed dictator and suspected pedophile Evo Morales. Morales, who ordered his loyalists to erect violent blockades to avoid a possible arrest on charges of statutory rape and human trafficking, is still vying to run for president for a fifth time in 2025 despite having already exceeded the two-term maximum limit established by the Bolivian constitution.
In Brazil, under the administration of radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has seen its national currency, the real, sink to record-lows in recent weeks due to Brazil’s growing fiscal deficit under Lula. As a result, the real ended 2024 as one the worst-performing currencies in the world and the worst among the G20 group of nations.
Brazilian outlets reported at the end of the year that financial market economists consulted by the Brazilian Central Bank are projecting a more intense increase in inflation and devaluation of the real against the dollar for 2025.
In Colombia, far-left Marxist President Gustavo Petro continues to see his approval ratings plummet as Colombia enters 2025, a year deemed “exceptional” and “politically hectic” due to the umber of regional elections slated to take place in at least 13 municipalities. Several outlets have described 2025 as a key year for Colombia’s political parties ahead of the 2026 general elections. Colombia’s constitution does not currently allow a president to be reelected under any circumstance, so the coalition led by Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever, will have to find a suitable candidate who can compete in 2026 despite Petro’s growing disapproval.
A similar case occurs in Chile under far-left President Gabriel Boric. According to the results of a recently published regional survey conducted by the Argentina-based research agency CB Consultora Opinión Pública, Boric has an approval rating of 40.2 percent. Boric, who is being investigated on allegations of “unlawful dissemination of intimate images,” is ineligible to run for reelection in next year’s general elections, as the Chilean constitution states that a president is not eligible for immediate reelection at the end of its four-year term.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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