For Decades, The United States Ignored Latin America. All That Changed Under Trump.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

In a pre-dawn raid in January, Delta Force soldiers burst in on a sleeping Nicolás Maduro, capturing the Venezuelan leader wanted on U.S. narco-terrorism charges.

The dramatic end of Maduro’s control over a country emblematic of left-wing politics underscored Latin America’s shift to the political right.

Since late 2025, the leadership has flipped from left to right in five Latin American countries: Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Peru, and Colombia. Uruguay did the opposite, shifting from right to left in November 2024, the same month Trump was reelected.

The conservative realignment under Trump comes as his administration has refocused on America’s southern neighbors in what has been dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine” – a play on the Monroe Doctrine, which asserted U.S. dominance over the region.

Gone is the “pink tide,” a wave of “soft” communism that emerged in Latin America in the late 1990s and extended into the 2000s before reemerging in the early 2020s.

The era gave rise to prominent left-wing leaders such as Maduro’s predecessor, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, whose takeover of oil and gas production tanked his country’s economy.

Experts believe a combination of Trump’s influence, along with economic and security concerns – two areas of strength for conservative candidates – has triggered a reversal of fortunes for leftist governments in the region.

Trump endorsed a number of right-wing candidates in Latin America. In December 2025, he endorsed Chile’s José Antonio Kast, who won a landslide election against the communist candidate Jeannette Jara in December 2025. That same month, Nasry Asfura, a Trump-backed conservative, snatched victory away from Honduras’s socialist government.

The president also supported Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella, who this year edged out Iván Cepeda, a left-wing opponent aligned with outgoing leader Gustavo Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla.

In four of the five countries, conservatives also made gains in their respective legislatures. Only Colombia saw the left actually gain legislative seats, but neither side holds a majority in its two chambers.

In Bolivia, no party won an outright majority, but the conservative government became the largest force in both chambers of its legislature, while conservative factions together make up a supermajority in both chambers of Bolivia’s government. The former leftist government retained only two seats.

Honduras’s single legislative chamber gained conservative seats on the coattails of Asfura’s victory. In Chile’s legislature, a conservative coalition controls the lower chamber, while the upper chamber is evenly split. Likewise, Peru’s conservative bloc holds a plurality but not a majority in the lower chamber, while the upper chamber is evenly divided.

Crime and Economics

Latin America’s conservative trend was sparked by disappointment with leftist governments, which led to increased organized crime and inflation, according to Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a Germany-based international political analysis group.

Of 16 democracies with populations greater than 1 million people, 10 have changed political direction since 2022, mostly from left to right, according to the report and recent updates.

Of those examined, only Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay currently have left-wing governments.

Venezuela, which wasn’t counted as a democracy, remains in political limbo after Maduro’s removal, leaving his Vice President Delcy Rodríguez in charge. Cuba remains under communist control that took root in the 1950s. Another country not included in the survey was Nicaragua, ruled by former left-wing guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega, who has been consolidating power since 2007. He recently announced the nation would cease to hold elections.

Guyana, which has about 1 million residents, holds democratic elections but remains firmly in the grasp of socialists.

Just as Maduro’s demise signaled the end of the old communist guard, figures such as Argentina’s golden chainsaw-wielding leader Javier Milei symbolize the rise of conservative populist leaders.

“Figures such as Javier Milei in Argentina and Nayib Bukele in El Salvador embody the new political mood with their populist strategies, while moderate conservatives such as Luis Abinader in the Dominican Republic prioritize stability and pragmatism,” according to the report.

U.S. policy has reinforced the region’s conservative vibe, the report said, leading to positive relationships with right-wing leaders.

“This is hardly surprising given that Washington recently announced its intent to actively support like-minded political forces in the Western Hemisphere, to expand trade relations, and to stabilize Latin American countries in line with its own interests,” the report states.

‘Trump Effect’

Joshua Trevino, senior director for the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said having a conservative in the White House has driven change in Latin America.

Trump’s influence and policies have contributed to Latin America turning away from socialism and communism, he said.

“So what we see is a Trump administration effect to a lot of it,” he told The Epoch Times. “We can have a lot more open optimism in Latin America than we previously did.”

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