Attempts to subvert democracy have become a staple of our time. But amid this deeply worrisome trend is an encouraging development: Those attempts appear to be failing, as those who support democracy get better at defending it. Consider Guatemala, where a soft coup was defeated by the country’s citizens and international pressure.
One year ago, Brazil experienced what looked its own version of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection in Washington. Since then, though, the two countries, whose political dramas had momentarily converged, moved in completely different directions. Today, Brazilian democracy appears to have stabilized. American democracy has not.
Of Latin America’s six presidential elections scheduled for 2024, the incumbent party is currently favored in four. Rather than a clear break in the region’s anti-incumbent trend, however, this year’s elections will be exceptions that prove the rule. Three of them offer examples of the challenges that democracy faces in the hemisphere.