Latin America: between formal democracy and social mobilization

In his program “Notables” on May 23 on Telesur, journalist Jorge Gestoso interviewed Karina Batthyány, Executive Secretary of CLACSO, with whom he reviewed the pandemic, care and the political and social situation in our region.

Among other concepts, Karina Batthyány stated: “If we had to choose an image that summarizes or represents the current political situation in Latin America, we would speak of a crossroads, a situation of return or, in some cases, emergence of right-wing, far-right, neoconservative, and neoliberal governments, which come hand in hand with regressive social policies and the erosion of rights. But at the same time, this occurs in a context where, in other countries, such as Argentina and Mexico, among others in Latin America and the Caribbean, more populist, progressive governments are also returning to the scene. Thus, all these tensions related to democracy arise. And if one asks what the ultimate challenges to democracy in Latin America are, one of the first challenges identified in research is the loss of independence of the judiciary and what have been called the processes of lawfare throughout our region, with limited access to justice, restrictions on freedom of expression, and low representativeness of elected governments. In general, these are the causes being identified.” These risks are further compounded by an unprecedented level of social mobilization in our region. Consider what was happening before the pandemic in countries like Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, with truly significant levels of social mobilization, where people are protesting precisely this approach being taken within Latin American formal democracies, this loss of judicial independence, and this politicization of the judiciary that we are witnessing.”