The Domino Effect

By Matilde Cavina & Elvira Godoy

In the last few months Latin America has seen an exponential peek of protests throughout various countries such as Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, and Colombia. Such phenomenon can be explained due to the stress of the people, brought by the negative and inactive governments.

In Venezuela, society protests against the government because they want a change in power, something that has not happened because of political leaders’ corruption, specifically Nicolás Maduro who won the last elections by fraud. Because of this, the Venezuelan people elected Juan Guaidó as their interim president; however, Maduro remains in power as president-elect.

In Honduras, workers in the health and education sectors protest against the privatization that the government wants to implement in these sectors. They also feel distrust towards their president because the last scandal in the country involved the brother of the current president, Antonio 'Tony' Hernandez, who smuggled drugs into the United States.

Peru is unhappy with President Vizcarra's congress due to the corruption that has occurred in recent years. The people have demanded its dissolution due to rumors of the leader being linked to the Odebrecht case. Currently, Martin Vizcarra is still in power, but with a dissolved congress.

The protests in Chile began because of inflation supported by the government, leading Chileans to protest. The change of the Chilean constitution is currently in process, a process in which the opinion of the people will be asked. Unfortunately, during the protests there have been human losses.

In the last elections in Bolivia, many irregularities were found because Evo Morales was said to have won. He had already been ruling the country for 14 years. The population acted in accordance with this injustice and began the protests, succeeding at having the former president flee the country. Evo Morales is currently in exile in Mexico.

Protests have also begun in Colombia because of injustice, insecurity, murders, lack of employment and the new reforms that the government was going to implement in pensions and labor. Unions, teachers, students, indigenous women and opposition political sectors carried out the protests, demanding a better quality of life.

All these protests seem to have in common the fact that people are aware of negative decisions from governments and will not take it anymore. As a result, we can observe a domino effect between the different countries of Latin America.