Across Latin America, people are replacing socialist governments with leaders who promise security, order, economic recovery, and a return to common sense. Argentina, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama and Chile have all moved in this direction over a short period. These shifts aren’t isolated cases but part of a regional pattern that's growing stronger as socialist promises drag countries into political, social, and economic chaos.
The elections in these countries were decided by simple yet fundamental demands, such as restoring street security, halting inflation, reducing economic intervention, and rebuilding state capacity. Thus, people didn’t suddenly become champions of free markets, but they grew tired of crime, currency collapse, and permanent emergencies created by socialist governments.
That is why citizens now look to right-leaning leaders for practical solutions. They increasingly understand that there is no real alternative to a market economy and the rule of law if a country wants to create wealth, attract investment, and sustain predictable policies.
A new era is now taking shape in Latin America, one that strengthens the position of already pro-market and expat-friendly countries while encouraging others to abandon statist policies and align with this rising regional trend. In this article, I’ll explain what the “Right Turn” is, why it is happening now, and what it means for the future of Latin America, especially for expats building a Plan-B.
Latin America’s right turn reflects socialism’s failure: central planning wrecked security, currencies, and markets, pushing voters to demand order, market reforms, and stability
Latin America’s right turn shift isn’t a single ideology or a governing model that takes control of these countries. So, I am not arguing about a uniform “right-wing bloc” emerging across the region. However, what is common is that every country turning right had socialist governments come to power with big promises, such as wealth, equality, and inclusion, and failed their people by almost turning these countries into a failed state.
People who voted for redistribution of wealth ended up losing basic street security, trust in public institutions, social order, the value of their currency, and any real hope that things would improve. That is why, across countries that recently shifted to the right, the same three demands appear again and again: restoring security, stabilizing the economy, and healing social cohesion.
Gang-related organized crime took over the streets and prisons, leaving the political authorities looking like puppets incapable of enforcing the rules in these countries. So, the first message of the right-wing leaders is to restore security by whatever means necessary, depending on the urgency and scale of the security issues.
So, the promise that organized crime is no longer treated as a social problem to be managed, negotiated with, or tolerated has gained huge support from the citizens. People demand that governments prioritize enforcement, prison control, border security, and territorial authority.
People who were promised prosperity ended up with years of inflation, economic inefficiency, capital controls, bureaucratic paralysis, and more dependency on social programs. Once the citizens realized that redistributing natural resources doesn’t create the wealth of nations, they began backing leaders who promised to restore basic economic order.
In practice, it means reducing deficits, cutting subsidies, deregulating markets, and restoring confidence in the economy. So, instead of targeting growth rates, right-wing leaders focused on stable currency, functioning markets, and investment to rebuild the economy.
Our traditional values are in serious danger under a planned attack of wokeism for decades in the West. Recently, we have witnessed a similar assault on family values in Latin America carried out by so-called 21st-century socialists. Leftist political movements and leaders have started to propagate comprehensive progressive agendas in the last decade, sparking furious debates over the role of government and polarizing social groups.
So-called inclusion policies most of the time ended up disturbing social cohesion, where frustration had already risen due to security and economic concerns. The widespread feeling of losing common ground is the core reason why right-wing politicians end identity-based policies to varying degrees and restore a sense of citizenship rather than group loyalty.
From El Salvador to Argentina, right-wing leaders gain support by fighting crime, restoring order, and reshaping economies around freedom and fiscal discipline
It all started with socialist governments winning elections in a wave across many Latin American countries from 1990 to the 2000s. Socialists, mostly in resource-rich countries, used rising commodity prices to convince people that redistribution alone was enough to overcome poverty and underdevelopment. Many countries turned toward statism and economic nationalism under the polished Marxist discourse of so-called 21st-century socialism.
Socialist governments quickly set about establishing a one-party state by eroding the independence of courts, regulators, and the media. They nationalized heavy industries such as the oil, gas, and mining sectors through overregulation and turned the economy into a command system. Price caps, capital restrictions, permit regimes, and an expanding bureaucracy replaced investment and competence with rent-seeking behaviour.
Social spending financed by inflation and borrowing created a vicious cycle of emergencies requiring further intervention. As public institutions weakened and predictability disappeared, organized crime filled the power vacuum.
So, the socialist failure in these countries was beyond fixing with routine adjustments. These governments lost their political legitimacy in a decisive way that can’t be restored by ‘good-old socialist slogans’. That is why we are witnessing right-wing leaders easily forming winning coalitions by promising to restore public order and return to common sense in recent years.
The first example of these countries turning right to avoid the state failing was El Salvador. The ex-guerrilla Marxist armed force later transformed into a political party, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which ruled El Salvador for ten years. At the end of a decade of FMLN rule, El Salvador looked much like a living definition of a failed state as the central government totally lost its control over its territory to gang networks.
In such a dramatic time, Nayib Bukele presented himself as a new-generation statesman, separating himself from the old ruling elite, ready to take the necessary measures to restore public order in the struggle against organized crime. Despite the debate over his controversial security measures since his 2019 election, El Salvador is now one of the safest countries in Latin America. With his overwhelming popularity among Salvadorans, Bukele has been investing in the tourism sector and financial infrastructure, especially in cryptocurrencies, to rebuild the economy following the restoration of political authority.
Although Bukele’s success was phenomenal, Javier Milei is on something that will most likely have a great influence not just on Latin America but on all developing countries in the world. As the second-largest economy in Latin America, Argentina’s economic and political problems are as complex as the country itself. Since the 1930s, Argentina has never abandoned its Peronist and Kirchnerist statist economic mindset that drives the country into constant cycles of crisis until Milei. With his unapologetic libertarian discourse and radical economic policies to cut public spending and liberalize the economy, Milei has literally reset Argentina’s economic outlook and changed minds about what is possible in the country. In a short period since his 2023 election, Milei has tamed hyperinflation, achieved a budget surplus, stabilized the currency, attracted foreign investment, stopped the progressive agenda, and made Argentina a safer place. He has been building a model of how freedom works in practice, which makes socialists insecure all over the world.
Another country that surrendered to gangsters by the socialist governments was Ecuador. Because Rafael Correa’s administrations (2007-2017) were too busy redistributing economic rents, creating patronage networks, capturing bureaucratic positions, and manipulating public institutions, they preferred to manage the gangs, such as subsidizing young gangsters in return for stopping violence. Correa’s successor, Lenín Moreno (2017-2021), even made a secret agreement with the gang leaders to reduce the homicide rates. It became painfully clear that these gangsters were not being reintegrated into society when state aid was cut off. The experiment ended with Daniel Noboa, who was first elected in 2023 and reelected in 2025. He had to pursue military-backed enforcement to regain control on the streets and in the prisons. Noboa has been rebuilding public confidence in political authority, resolving the government's fiscal problems, and attracting investment since he restored security in the country.
Another significant socialist government overthrown by democratic elections was that of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party in Bolivia, where right-wing leader Rodrigo Paz Pereira secured a decisive victory. MAS ruled the country from 2006 to 2019 and again from 2020 to 2025. First Evo Morales, and then Luis Arce, led the MAS party, dragging Bolivia into a political crisis that increasingly resembled a political soap opera.
Morales pushed his presidency into a fourth term, despite the two-term limit, by using his unlimited powers over public institutions. Once he declared his victory in the presidential election for the fourth time, riots broke out over rigged elections. A military coup forced Morales to flee to Mexico, while Jeanine Áñez (a right-wing senator) took interim power until the 2020 elections. Soon after, Áñez was imprisoned, and Acre won the 2020 presidential elections. However, the constant debate on Acre’s legitimacy and the dire conditions of the country never ended. Finally, Acre was accused of organizing a ‘self-coup’ in 2024, which he stopped before the cameras, to restore support for his presidency.
The endless Machiavellian fight for MAS's power ended in shame, as the party couldn’t even field a candidate for the 2025 elections, having lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. Fortunately, the chain of tragicomic events ended with the election of the right-wing leader Pereira, and he has been implementing common-sense right-wing policies since his election.
One of the most important political developments happened in Chile recently. Chileans overthrew their left-wing government by electing a conservative leader, not just in economic matters but also in social ones. This development is significant because Chile has been ruled by left-wing governments since Pinochet, except for Sebastián Piñera, who is a liberal in social policies. So, what was the story behind Kast’s clear victory at the end of 2025? The main debate has centred on a constitutional change to reform the state structure and priorities established since Pinochet, starting with the protests in 2019. With the 2022 Constitutional draft, Boric tried a quite progressive structural change in Chile, including expanding the welfare state, recognizing indigenous groups' right to self-determination, and advancing progressive rights such as gender equality, environmental rights, access to abortion without restrictions, neurodiversity, and anti-discrimination rights. After citizens rejected the first constitutional proposal, a softened version was put to a vote again in 2023. However, the result remained the same, and the country was left in the midst of a crisis of confidence, unable to decide which direction to take.
While Chile was debating on how to establish a progressive agenda to end the post-Pinochet era, organized crime rose with the declining safety on the borders, migration turned into a social issue, economic development was halted and predictability on regulations was weakened. In such a controversial period, Kast became the first politician since Pinochet to achieve a major victory with his explicitly right-wing and nationalist political priorities. Thus, in one of the most advanced economies of Latin America, voters preferred a right-wing leader to restore public order and pull the country back to common sense.
There is another country I’d like to mention: Paraguay. Here, leftist movements haven’t had much room to advance, except during Fernando Lugo’s presidency between 2008 and 2012. After ending a long military dictatorship in 1989, Paraguay deliberately embraced market-oriented reforms and competitive elections under respected constitutional limits. Since then, the country has been reinventing itself on the path toward a prosperous and peaceful society by opening its economy to the world and encouraging international cooperation. Paraguay stands as a strong example of what Latin American countries can achieve in a relatively short period of time by recognizing the power of freedom and trade. After my private meeting with Paraguay’s president, Santiago Peña, my confidence in the country was reinforced as I saw the determination behind the reform process firsthand.
The list wouldn’t be complete without Panama, a country whose long-term success has been built on institutional restraint and economic openness rather than ideological swings. With no standing army, no central bank, and a fully dollarized economy, Panama developed into one of Latin America’s most stable and investor-friendly jurisdictions, anchored by the Panama Canal and its role as a global trade and logistics hub. This model has been reinforced under President José Raúl Mulino, whose pragmatic, law-and-order leadership has focused on restoring state authority, securing borders, protecting the Canal’s strategic importance, and maintaining fiscal discipline. Rather than pursuing ideological experiments, Mulino has doubled down on stability, sovereignty, and openness to global capital, positioning Panama to evolve into an even more relevant international financial and logistics center.
Not a pendulum; more a correction. As order returns and markets work again, institutions rebuild and reversals get harder. For expats, this means more predictable, affordable places to plan long term
All these cases show that Latin America’s right turn isn’t a temporary era or a pendulum effect. What is happening is a great correction, a reset to recalibrate state priorities and the role of the government in society. The citizens asked governments for too much, and the governments promised way more than they could handle. Ultimately, they failed at the basics. By trying to manage prices, identities, and outcomes, governments dragged their nations into chaos. Leftist leaders, by demanding control over every aspect of society, destroyed individual liberty.
However, with the right policies, a reinforcing mechanism is in place. With security restored and inflation brought under control, investment revives, and market processes begin to function more effectively. As institutions regain credibility, confidence in government rises, and politics becomes less existential, path dependence sets in, making reversal of these policies increasingly difficult. In that sense, Latin America is exiting the post-socialist illusion phase and entering a longer period of institutional rebuilding.
This shift is quite important for expats as well. Latin America already offers a relatively low cost of living, large, modern cities, territorial tax systems, flexible residency pathways, and opportunities to grow your wealth. With many countries rediscovering rules-based governance and free markets, the region is becoming more predictable and more attractive for long-term planning. The competition and collaboration among these countries will grow, creating a stronger, more sustainable ecosystem in Latin America. This means more expats destinations and opportunities you can consider, building your Plan-B.
Latin America is entering a post-socialist phase as citizens push for order, credible institutions, and practical governance. Change won’t be overnight, but the region’s outlook is improving
Latin America’s right turn is best understood as a learning process. It isn’t a rebellion, a sudden collective change in the ideological positioning of people, or a conspiracy being held over Latin American left-wing governments.
After long periods of experimental left-wing policies to restructure the state, voters learned that wealth cannot be created by decree, security shouldn’t be negotiated with criminals, and institutions cannot survive when political patronage eliminates rules.
The majority of people have demanded a comprehensive recalibration of government priorities due to practical but compelling reasons. They chose leaders who promised to end socialist experiments, restore stable money and safe streets, heal social cohesion, and govern less but do it better.
More countries will choose to enter the post-socialist era in Latin America, and for expats, it opens a wider map of viable choices where expats can build a better life in many ways. For sure, these countries won’t transform overnight, but with them on the right track, faster improvements all over Latin America are on the way. If you still haven’t started building your Plan-B, the best way to get started is to download our free report on Plan-B Residencies & Instant Citizenships.