Latin American Left Research Articles

Playing with fire in a powder keg. The Haitian left in the process of consolidation and decline of the Latin American left (1991-2021).

El presente artículo busca hacer un recuento del desarrollo, evolución y disgregación de las agrupaciones políticas de izquierda en Haití, desde la transición democrática hasta el presente, en el marco de la historia política haitiana reciente. Se examinará, asimismo, la relación de las políticas planteadas y ejecutadas por estos movimientos y la relación de estas con los objetivos de los organismos de la izquierda internacional, en especial el Foro de Sao Paulo (FSP) y los entes patrocinados por el chavismo, como el ALBA y Petrocaribe. Buscaremos responder cuál fue la actuación de la izquierda haitiana, y las relaciones que ésta tuvo con la izquierda latinoamericana, en la crisis que vive Haití desde 2018 hasta la actualidad y que cobró la vida de su joven mandatario Jovenel Moïse, dejando al país en una situación anárquica.

Human dignity in organisations: the cooperative ideal

Abstract This paper critically evaluates the liberal-humanist critique of neoclassical microeconomics and shareholder-driven corporate governance to articulate a more realistic cooperativist–humanist organisational philosophy of practice. Through an engagement with pluralist heterodox economics, it attempts to reconcile with contemporary concerns and philosophical developments around social ecology and care ethics. Our specific contribution is to develop a microfoundational complement to the macro-relational analysis of leading radical philosophical and political-economic thinkers on the Latin American left. In particular, the worker-inclusive multistakeholder cooperative (MSC) form is arrived at as the ideal firm-level organisation through which to promote diverse human (and non-human) dignity, understood through the lens of an affective-relational ethics of care.

From Counter-Hegemonic Dialogue to Illiberal Understanding: Russian-Latin American Relations (2000–2023)

Russia’s return to Latin America since the 2000s now presents a mixed picture. Initially forged with a view to economic growth and trade diversification, the ties between Latin American countries and Russia have gradually become more political in nature, with public diplomacy in both emphasizing the rejection of liberalism and the West. Russia has thus been able to deploy a soft power strategy based on two pillars: its media of influence, which have been favorably received by “pink tide” governments, as well as the militant leftist networks in the Spanish-speaking world. In this article, I show that the counter-hegemonic dialogue between the various components of the Latin-American left and Russia can be described as “illiberal.” First, it is entirely context-dependent and does not follow any political line underpinned by a common dogma. Second, it can be explained by an ideological framework largely inherited from the Soviet past that is present on the Latin American left and exploited by Russia today. Third, it operates through a collection of narratives that echo the main historical struggles of the Latin American left: anti-Americanism, anti-colonialism, and anti-liberalism.

Spaces in between

In recent years, the Latin American left has achieved important electoral and social successes. Meanwhile, far-right movements across the continent have also come back from the brink, transformed from fringe political phenomena to powerful political vehicles capable of dictating political discourse and policies. In his article Harnessing the Storm: Constitutive moments and taypi in Latin America, Angus McNelly (2022) proposes to search for and to create openings for different futures and political alternatives out of the contradictions of capitalism on a regional scale with a focus on transformative movements. Connecting to McNelly’s reading of Rivera and Zavaleta, I put forward the concept of taypi by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. Taypi is the centre of a woven pattern, which she uses as a metaphor for a site of friction in between ch’ixi spaces and societies. Taypi allows us to interrogate both the creative as well as destructive potential that results from lo abigarrado and ch’ixi formations in Latin America – including authoritarian and far-right tendencies as part of the constitutive moments. I argue that focussing on taypi—regardless of the scope we seek to analyse—draws attention to the organisation that takes place on the ground in both its productive and destructive potential. I conclude that seeking constitutive moments, ch’ixi spaces and taypi across Latin America makes for a fruitful research agenda.

The AMLO Voter: Affective Polarization and the Rise of the Left in Mexico

What prompted so many voters in Mexico to abandon the traditional parties and support MORENA and its candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador? This research relies on data from Mexico's National Electoral Study (2018). The results show that support for López Obrador is strongly associated with affective polarization and the perception that the PRI and PAN represented the same political alternative. In turn, retrospective evaluations and ideology were not associated with López Obrador's victory. This research note contributes to our understanding of Mexico's historical elections as well as to the broader literature on the Latin American left. The success of the political left in Mexico is not rooted on voters’ programmatic preferences. Similar to the decay of mainstream political parties in other Latin American countries, in 2018, Mexican voters rejected the mainstream political establishment by supporting Lopez Obrador's third bid for the Presidency.

Years of hope: the new left in Bolivia, 1960—1980

This work is devoted to the emergence of the "new left" movement in Latin America in the 60s, considering as an example Bolivia. Here it is proposed to analyze the “new lefts” that arose as a result of the crisis of traditional orthodox Marxism and communism, and not those leftists that emerged on the continent after the collapse of the USSR and the dramatic changes in the left political space, the emergence of various variants of “socialism of the 21st century”, also called "new". In Bolivia, the “new left” was formed from the search for a synthesis of Marxism and nationalism, the renewal of the ideas of socialism at the expense of Western, unorthodox Marxism, and an alliance with social Catholicism. All the political and ideological currents of the "new left" arose under the dominant influence of the Cuban revolution, the guerrilla of Che Guevara, “theology of liberation” and the "world revolution" of 1968. This phenomenon had a short existence, entering a deep crisis in the late 80s, but at the same time leaving a rich legacy for the next generations of the Bolivian left, and there is a clear continuity between the “new left” of the 60s and 70s and today's Latin American left.

La izquierda latinoamericana en los estudios ruso-soviéticos

Los estudios de la izquierda se convirtieron en una rama específica de la historia del siglo XX. En la URSS, esta problemática implícitamente académica siempre tuvo rasgos y contenidos políticos impuestos por la ideología y la línea política imperante del partido único del gobierno, el Partido Comunista de la Unión Soviética, que desde las épocas de la Internacional Comunista pretendió ser el timonel de todo el movimiento comunista internacional y arbitro para otros movimientos de la izquierda. Para efectuar esta tarea en la URSS existieron instituciones académicas cuyo objetivo era suministrar el estudio y la elaboración de las recomendaciones sobre los puntos problemáticos de la política, y al mismo tiempo cumplir el papel propagandístico de la ideología dominante. Sin embargo, dentro de este sistema ideológico rígido, en el ámbito académico-universitario surgieron ideas y conceptos heterodoxos que fueron como una fogata viva del pensamiento marxista en un país esterilizado ideológicamente. Este texto trata de recuperar el pensamiento soviético en la esfera de los estudios académicos de la izquierda latinoamericana.

OUTUBRO REBELDE: eleições e protestos na América Latina.

Resumo: O objetivo desse artigo é analisar os protestos ocorridos em alguns países da América Latina e do Caribe por volta do mês de outubro de 2019, relacionando-os tanto com a reassunção de governos conservadores quanto com os processos de alternância eleitoral entre governos neoliberais e de esquerda ou centro-esquerda nos últimos anos do século XX e início do século XXI.
 Palavras-chave: Protestos na América Latina, Neoliberalismo, Esquerdas na América Latina

A “democracia popular” da Frente Sandinista de Libertação Nacional: uma breve discussão a partir do debate marxista e da práxis revolucionária

Resumo: Neste artigo nos propomos a realizar um debate inicial sobre o conceito de democracia defendido pelos sandinistas, buscando compreender de que forma este se relaciona a uma discussão do marxismo acerca da hegemonia e da tomada de consciência revolucionária. Para isso, consideramos a singularidade do processo sandinista, que por meio da luta armada toma o poder na Nicarágua em 1979, no contexto pós-Revolução Cubana (1959), adotando uma perspectiva revolucionária própria, que tem a democracia como eixo central para se alcançar a soberania nacional e popular. Para compreendermos o projeto democrático sandinista e a disputa da hegemonia empreendida pela Frente Sandinista de Libertação Nacional, recorremos não apenas aos documentos da Frente, mas a estabelecer a relação dessas definições com o debate mais amplo do marxismo, principalmente gramsciano, a partir da historicidade latino-americana.
 Palavras-chave: Revolução Sandinista; democracia popular; esquerdas latino-americanas.

Lecciones de la izquierda en América Latina:

En este trabajo se presentan los ejes de la discusión que dieron cuerpo a la tradición que, sobre el cambio social, brindó la izquierda a la región de América Latina y la forma en que ésta vertiente de pensamiento fue transformada por la crisis del desarrollismo, la violencia de los regímenes autoritarios y finalmente por la llegada del neoliberalismo. A partir de ésta revisión se ha buscado identificar las líneas de continuidad y ruptura entre el discurso de la izquierda latinoamericana y los elementos que encontramos presentes en la reconfiguración del campo político que devino de la crisis neoliberal. En ese sentido, la condición actual de la izquierda latinoamericana no puede explicarse sin reconocer un discurso político articulado que le ha permitido tener penetración social, el cual si bien tiene mucho de nuevo, también abreva de los aportes de la izquierda clásica. Esa condición difusa de la izquierda le ha permitido incluir a amplios sectores y avanzar desde la perspectiva político electoral que caracterizó a la región a lo largo de la primera década del siglo XXI.

The National-Popular in Bolivia: history, crisis and social knowledge

Rene Zavaleta is often described as a forgotten or understudied figure of the Latin American left, and yet when he is cited it is to assign to him a position at once singular and emblematic within ...

Considerações acerca do Neoliberalismo e do Progressismo na América Latina

O presente artigo visa contribuir na avaliação do neoliberalismo e do progressismo na América Latina, desde suas origens até o momento atual, bem como avaliar alternativas que se lhes apresentam. Para o pensamento crítico é inegável os efeitos mais ou menos deletérios do neoliberalismo em nossa região. Para realizar o projeto neoliberal, seus artífices propuseram um conjunto articulado de reformas estruturais, dentre as quais se destacaram uma forte economia de mercado, a retirada do Estado da esfera econômica e social através da diminuição do gasto público, a redução de barreiras para a livre mobilidade de capitais, bem como o estabelecimento de um mercado de trabalho cada vez mais flexível. É o que temos em vista na análise do neoliberalismo latino-americano e a ratificação do capitalismo dependente. Certamente mais polêmico foram os acertos e erros das experiências progressistas para superá-lo, bem como dos desafios que temos pela frente. É o que temos em vista ao analisarmos a esquerda latino-americana frente ao avanço neoliberal como um precedente rico em lições para o século XXI.

Michel Foucault, o paradigma da formação e junho de 2013

O livro Enigma do disforme: neoliberalismo e biopoder no Brasil global, de Giuseppe Cocco e Bruno Cava, retoma a crítica de Michel Foucault a respeito do neoliberalismo para oferecer uma interpretação sobre os impasses políticos da esquerda brasileira e latinoamericana. Para tanto, desdobra essa crítica em dois planos: um, por assim dizer, propriamente histórico, no qual se busca reinterpretar os sentidos da formação histórica brasileira e latino-americana, e outro mais vinculado às disputas interpretativas e políticas surgidas no contexto do que denominam “ciclo progressista” brasileiro e latino-americano.

México en la obra de Roberto Bolaño. Memoria y territorio by Fernando Saucedo Lastra

Reviewed by: México en la obra de Roberto Bolaño. Memoria y territorio by Fernando Saucedo Lastra Ryan Long Saucedo Lastra, Fernando. México en la obra de Roberto Bolaño. Memoria y territorio. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2015. 204 pp. There are probably as many ways to approach Roberto Bolaño's work as there are novels, short stories, essays, and poems in his oeuvre. In general, scholarship about Bolaño's writing falls into one or more of three categories: to consider a text by Bolaño in order to write about a broader theme, such as writing, violence, the nature of evil, adolescence, or the Latin American left; to conduct a close reading of a single text in order to elucidate its meaning; or to devise a way of connecting several of Bolaño's texts in order to identify traits that define and unite them. This final approach has perhaps the most potential to benefit Bolaño scholars and general readers alike while it also raises the risks of inadvertently highlighting omitted texts and simplifying the category employed to characterize an entire body of work. In México en la obra de Roberto Bolaño, Fernando Saucedo Lastra takes the third approach, and he organizes his book around the self-evident but complicated topic of how Bolaño represents Mexico, a country that significantly affected Bolaño's life and writing. Saucedo Lastra identifies instances of Mexico as a topic in Bolaño's prose fiction, starting with La senda de los elefantes (1984) (better known by its second title, Monsieur Pain [1999]) and ending with 2666 (2004). He aims to explain what Mexico denotes, connotes, and symbolizes in the context of each separate text and as the product of connections among texts, and he proceeds in a generally teleological fashion. Highlighting the importance of Bolaño's departure from Mexico in 1977, when the author was still a young man, Saucedo Lastra's book argues that a return to Mexico in Bolaño's work evolves and intensifies over the years, appearing especially clearly and substantially in the longest and most complicated novels, Los detectives salvajes (1998) and 2666. Saucedo Lastra concludes that Mexico tends to be associated in Bolaño's work with memory, nostalgia, violence, mystery, and myth. The development of this conclusion succeeds and fails along lines that correspond to the difficulties associated with approaching an author's entire work, mentioned above. Saucedo Lastra's readings of specific texts are often very good but the comprehensive category of Mexico his conclusion sustains, ends up being somewhat disappointing for being insufficiently nuanced and for failing to explain why some texts were either insufficiently considered or omitted. Especially good are Saucedo Lastra's convincing and detailed readings of Detectives and 2666. Regarding the former, he explains how this novel portrays the instability of time and space, a topic particularly relevant to his discussion of the palimpsest that maps out the nomadic lives and legacies of Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima. Saucedo Lastra's very careful and perceptive analysis of 2666 will serve as an exceptionally thorough guide for scholars because of its clear and comprehensive explication of the novel's structure. Also helpful is the taxonomy of Mexico as it appears in Bolaño's work, which Saucedo Lastra develops over the course of the book, a taxonomy that will no doubt be a good starting point for further investigations into the topic of how Bolaño represents Mexico. Overall, Saucedo Lastra's book [End Page 502] presents its readers with a well-written, clearly organized, and comprehensive analysis of a topic crucial for understanding Bolaño's work and life. One of the pitfalls of identifying a unifying theme for understanding a body of work as substantial as Bolaño's is the risk of leaving something out. While I would not expect total comprehensiveness, the omission of a sustained discussion of Amuleto (1999), to my mind one of the best novels there is about the events of 1968 in Mexico, is an odd choice. A reading of the short story, "Últimos atardeceres en la tierra" (2001), would have helped develop Saucedo Lastra's...

Del etapismo a la inmediatez. Debates en torno a la idea de revolución en América Latina a partir de 1959

El artículo reflexiona acerca de la transformación de la idea de revolución en los años sesenta para una parte de la izquierda latinoamericana, que abandona y critica la propuesta comunista de la revolución por etapas y defiende la inmediatez del cambio siguiendo el ejemplo de la Revolución cubana. La fuerte polarización entre estas dos concepciones acerca del significado y las vías de la revolución, darán pie desde entonces a una profunda división en la izquierda latinoamericana que será clave en su evolución organizativa y acción desde 1960.

¿La Maldición de los Recursos Naturales? Conocimiento Experto, Política e Intereses Sectoriales en el Desarrollo de Biocombustibles en Sudamérica

The natural resource curse thesis coined by Auty (1993) remains up to date as the development strategies of most countries in the Global South continue to be directly tied to an intensive exploitation of natural resources. This is particularly evident within the biofuels sector where a growing external demand for this good, coming from industrialized economies, has led South American countries to become global biofuels providers even when the socio- economic sustainability of this development model is still at stake. Cooperative interactions between prominent biofuel producing countries such as Argentina, Brazil are framed under regional organizations that reflect a concert of like-minded governments that composed the so-called new Latin American left. While an array of uncertainties monopolize the global debates around the sustainability of biofuels, policymakers in the region are turning to expert knowledge to overcome this limitation. Nonetheless, the contributions by experts for the development of sustainable biofuels in South America appears to be functional to specific 1

Latin American Perspectives

In the mid-1960s a new forum for progressive work in Latin American studies was born in Southern California. It was initiated by junior faculty and graduate students who questioned the mainstream emphasis on institutional stability in modern capitalism. Negative effects of the market economy in Latin America such as social inequality, political repression, and external dependence, they protested, were absent from the agenda of mainstream research. Too often, concerns central to Latin American intellectuals were sidelined by traditional U.S. journals. To counter this tendency, the Southern California progressive Latin Americanists, many of them educated at the prestigious but rather conservative Stanford University, launched initiatives such as Union of Radical Latin Americanists (URLA), the Los Angeles Group for Latin American Solidarity (LAGLAS), Non-Intervention in Chile (NICH), and the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). In 1974 they converged in a new academic journal, Latin American Perspectives (LAP). During its founding meeting in Laguna Beach, LAP was conceived to be on the cutting edge of studies on capitalism, socialism, and imperialism and in tune with popular struggles and debates within the Latin American left. The founders’ intention was to unite intellectuals North and South and be open to new thinking and debates. They adopted a participatory editorial culture accompanied by a critique of both mainstream positivism and the orthodox Marxist politicization of social research while seeking theoretical innovations and concrete analyses of capitalism. During four decades, debates appeared in the journal’s pages, initially with pioneering issues on dependency, Cuban socialism, gender, democratic class struggle, and imperialism. Later, when

Returns to Capital:

Returns to Capital:

Latin America’s Radical Left in Power

The democratic, peaceful road to socialism, which has been pursued by the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador and serves as an inspiration for much of the Latin American left, hardly represents a new approach. Social democratic movements worldwide grouped in the Socialist International were the foremost advocates of socialism by pacific means from the organization’s founding in 1951. However, whereas the social democrats favored moderate policies designed to avoid discord and achieve broad consensus, the three Latin American nations have been subject to intense political conflict and class and political polarization. In this sense, they resemble the communist experiences in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba, which were characterized by head-on confrontations with the opponents of far-reaching change and with institutions representing the old order. In contrast to that of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, however, the official discourse of the communist parties in power dismissed the possibility of the peaceful democratic transition to socialism in accordance with orthodox Marxist thinking on the inevitability of class warfare (Regalado, 2007: 232). 1 The three Latin American leftist governments also resemble two experiences of the Latin American left in power in the latter part of the twentieth century. Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular in Chile and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua attempted to combine a radical transition to socialism with multiparty democracy and adherence to civil liberties. However, in the cold war environment of the period, both were defeated by the combined forces of U.S. and domestic opposition at great social cost. In general, the experience of the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador contrasts with that of communist, social democratic, and Latin American leftist ones in the twentieth century as well as with moderate leftist ones in the twenty-first. The term “twenty-first-century Latin American radical left” as used here applies primarily to the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador and

The Good, the Bad, and the Benevolent Interventionist

U.S. journalists and commentators have helped popularize the image of two distinct Latin American lefts: a “bad” left that is politically authoritarian and economically erratic and a “good” left that is democratic and committed to free-market economics. This binary image oversimplifies the Latin American left in three ways: by overstating the contrast between the two alleged camps, by ignoring complex realities within each camp, and by exaggerating the failings of the so-called bad-left governments. The distinction makes sense, however, as a strategy for countering the rise of independent left-leaning governments in Latin America. Binary characterizations of subordinate peoples reflect a common discursive response to popular resistance on the part of imperial interests and one with many precedents in the history of U.S.–Latin American relations. Widespread U.S. media adherence to the good-left/bad-left thesis is explicable given this context and given the historic and continuing dependence of the press on...