The Lights Are Going on in South America

Two centuries after Simon Bolivar led the liberation of much of South America, securing independence from Spain, his unfulfilled dream of a truly democratic continent is perhaps about to be realized.

In an astonishingly short period of time, virtually the entire landmass of nations has been transformed. Chronically failed states run by oligarchs and dictators exploiting impoverished societies which went from brief periods of freedom to recurrent totalitarian regimes have emerged as burgeoning democracies set to expand the horizons of freedom and liberty.

In 2023, Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina, replacing the latest version of Peronism which had crippled that nation for decades. Virtually all of the other South American nations, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Colombia, have also replaced their repressive regimes with new conservative leaders and governments. It appears that Venezuela is about to do the same, as Maria Machado may be about to return from exile.

The major holdout, Brazil, has had socialist regimes for decades – with a brief but notable interruption by former President Jair Bolsonaro. Despite its large size, population, and resources, Brazil has failed to develop into a truly democratic, stable, and prosperous nation.

Brazil’s current presidential election, however, signals that its failed socialist administration under President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva may be coming to an end. In the first round of voting on October 4, Lula came in second to conservative Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of Jair Bolsonaro who was put in jail by Lula and his leftist party. Bolsonaro’s conservative party also won sweeping victories in congressional races.

This result was surprising to most observers, as polls showed Lula with a lead heading into the final days of the race. The second and final round of voting will take place on October 25.

Milei and most of the other conservative South American leaders, including Bolsonaro, openly admire the U.S. and President Trump — a reversal of decades of anti-U.S. attitudes that pervaded post-World War II politics of the continent.

Bolivar had admired both British and American forms of government, even calling U.S. federalism the ideal, but he recognized that South American societies, rooted in the culture of imperial Spain, needed their own forms of democratic government.

Wearied by constant military campaigns, ill health, and betrayed by former allies, Bolivar’s idealism hardened and he went into exile. He died in poverty of tuberculosis when he was only 47, but he soon became posthumously hailed as an iconic hero regarded as “The Liberator” of the continent. Considered the “George Washington” of South America, his name was everywhere. Bolivia was named after him, as was “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” He is celebrated by the left and the right, by dictators and democratic leaders. Yet his vision of a free federation of South American nations has not been fulfilled.

The recent transformation of virtually the entire continent into democratic free market nations, however, might lead to the realization of a 21st-century version of Bolivar’s ideal.

Ironically, just as South America throws off the failure of socialism and totalitarian governments, the nations that inspired Bolivar’s mission are mired in political identity crises. The United Kingdom is in the throes of a failed socialist Labour government. Its economy, along with the economies of most of Western Europe, has stagnated, and rampant illegal immigration threatens social order.

In the United States, demagogic neo-socialist candidates are openly advocating for the end of the American free market democratic system. Radical academics and activists are seeking to villainize the country’s greatest heroes and recast the American story as one of evil and oppression. The very institutions that Bolivar sought to emulate are under attack.

This follows the collapse of the Marxist-Leninist regime in Russia in 1991, and the abandonment of the post-World War II social welfare systems in Scandinavia, Italy, and other nations of Western Europe — as well as the creation of free-market economies replacing rigid communist systems in Eastern Europe.

Many observers think that the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of Europe, is already lost as a result of its chaotic immigration policies and demographic decline. But for the United States, the moments of truth are ahead, perhaps as soon as the midterm elections next month.

Meanwhile, the new conservative, center-right, and libertarian leaders in South America, including Presidents Javier Milei of Argentina, Rodrigo Paz of Bolivia, Jose Antonio Kast of Chile, Abelardo de la Espriella of Colombia, Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, Santiago Peña of Paraguay, and Keiko Fujimori of Peru grapple with reforming long-failing economies of their predecessors and the entrenched interests which protected them.

If they succeed, Simon Bolivar’s dream could at last be realized.