Opinion

TANVI RATNA: Latin America's right turn is redrawing the United States' backyard

Keiko Fujimori in Peru and Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia rode voter exhaustion to victory

By Tanvi Ratna Fox News

Published July 4, 2026 3:26pm EDT

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Trump congratulates Colombia presidential candidate

Trump congratulated Abelardo De La Espriella, known by many as 'El Tigre,' following an initial ballot count. While not officially called, the narrow lead signals a potential rightward shift for Colombia. (Reuters.)

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Latin America has moved right. Not in one election, not in one country, and not as a passing mood. The region’s political map has been reordered. Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic are now governed by right-wing, center-right, or security-first governments broadly aligned with Washington’s new strategic posture.

Only Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and a handful of others remain, for now, outside this broader shift. Cuba and Nicaragua remain closed authoritarian cases. Venezuela, after the rupture of the old Chavista order, now stands as the clearest warning of what happens when left-wing regimes lose both legitimacy and protection.

That is the new hemisphere. The pink tide has receded. In its place is a harder, more security-driven right. And the latest proof is not just that the right is winning. It is why it is winning.

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The decisive change came after the U.S. moved from pressure to force in Latin America’s strategic environment, then widened that pressure through Cuba and the Iran war. Washington showed that hostile regimes could be squeezed, destabilized, or removed; that fuel, sanctions, and military leverage could be used together; and that the hemisphere would now be treated less like a diplomatic afterthought and more like a security perimeter.

Argentina President Javier Milei speaks during a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust and Heroism Day, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, May 8, 2024.  (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

That changed the political calculus across the region.

This was not a single event. It was a........

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