Multiple Sources of Protest Movements in Latin America

Social outbreaks which have been characteristic of the political landscape of Latin America throughout the course of history of this region , reached their peak in the late 90s of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. It can be argued without exaggeration that a special culture of mass protests has already formed in this part of the world. It functions as an independent “pressure mechanism” aimed at expanding rights and reducing historical injustice. In the fall of 2019 Latin America became the epicenter of social protests. Residents of the highest income inequality region of the world ceased restraining their discontent. It turned out to be impossible for the state authorities to react to such indignation by the usual repressive methods, thus they were forced to listen to society demands. In just a few months, Haiti, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia were caught in a massive political crisis which was marked by massive street demonstrations. Gradually, a wave of public discontent swept over countries such as Colombia and Argentina. Although the root causes of these events in each country were different, several general trends stand out in all the chaos that is happening in Latin America. These trends can be traced in all foci of instability that broke out almost simultaneously in several countries of the region. This paper attempts to analyze the main factors that led to such widespread unrest. The goal of this analysis is to reveal the unresolved problems of the region. The author identifies the main reasons that together caused social explosions, and presents them in the form of a hierarchical pyramid: from the underlying economic instability, the crisis of the neoliberal development model, social inequality; the weakening of the political system and corruption, that are situated in the middle; until the very top of the pyramid – the “democracy deficit” and the influence of social networks. In this context, I divided the article into 4 thematic blocks, which will allow a systematic review of the most important causes that set a chain reaction in motion of protest activities, as well as an assessment of the further development of the socio-political situation in Latin America. A combination of regional and country approaches were applied in this paper to the phenomenon under study.

1. Aínsa F. (1999). La unidad de América Latina como utopía [The unity of Latin America as a utopia]. In: La reconstrucción de la utopía. México: Librería El Correo de la Unesco. P. 187–208.

2. Allain M. (2019). Conflictos y protestas socio-ambientales en Chile: Reflexiones metodológicas y resul- tados. Revista De Sociología. Vol. 34. No. 1. P. 81–101. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-529X.2019.54271

3. Bárcena A., Cimoli M., García-Buchaca R., Titelman D., Pérez R. (2019). Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe 2019. El nuevo contexto financiero mundial: efectos y mecanismos de transmisión en la region [Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2019. The new global financial context: effects and transmission mechanisms in the region]. NU. CEPAL. LC/PUB.2019/12-P. 243 p.

4. Budaev A. (2020). “Latinoamerikanskaya vesna – 2019”. Krizis neoliberal'noy modeli razvitiya [“The Latin American Spring – 2019”. Crisis of the Neoliberal Model of Development]. Latinskaya Amerika. No. 6. P. 31–41.

5. Chernyshev A. (2020). Postelektoral'nyy krizis 2019 g. v Bolivii: regional'nyy faktor i rol' silovykh struktur [2019 post-electoral crisis in Bolivia: the regional factor and the role of the law enforcement agencies]. Latinskaya Amerika. No. 1. P. 22–32.

6. Díaz E., Delia l. López (1989). Che: aspectos de su pensamiento ético. In: Pensar al Che, t. II, Centro de Estudios sobre América y Editorial José Martí, La Habana. P. 135–195.

7. Diyakova L.V. (2019). Novyye yavleniya v politicheskoy zhizni Chili [New phenomena and trends in Chilean politics]. Iberoamericanskie tetradi. No. 3. P. 12–15.

8. Durand L., Nygren A., Vega-Leinert A., Figueroa F., Caro-Borrero A., Trench T., Libert Amico A., Hecken G., Merlet P., Lindtner M., Bastiaensen J., Orozco C., Tejeda L., Rist S.,Rodríguez-Labajos B., Clausing P., Guzmán K., Torrent J., Saaristo S.-M., Núñez J., Roux H. (2019). Naturaleza y neoliberalismo en América Latina [Nature and neoliberalism in Latin America.]. D. R.Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 570 p.

9. Esmeralda J. (2020). Protestas En Chile. Universidad San Francisco De Quito. 10 p.

10. Hernández J. L. G. (2019). “Volvieron y son millones”. Protestas sociales ante la nueva embestida del FMI en Ecuador. Desinformémonos, Medio Digital. URL: https://www.academia.edu/43152149/_Volvieron_y_son_millones_Protestas_sociales_ante_la_nueva_embestida_del_FMI_en_Ecuador

11. Hochstetler K. (2006). Rethinking Presidentialism: Challenges and Presidential Falls in South America. Comparative Politics. Vol. 38. No. 4. P. 401–418.

12. Hochstetler K., Edwards M. E. (2009). Failed Presidencies: Identifying and Explaining a South America Anomaly. Journal of Politics in Latin America. Vol. 1. No. 2. P. 31–57.

13. Kim Hun Y., Bahry D. (2008). Interrupted Presidencies in Third Wave Democracies. The Journal of Politics. Vol. 70. No. 3. P. 807–822.

14. Kosevich E. Yu. (2020). Meksika v sisteme geopoliticheskikh koordinat nachala XXI veka [Mexico in the System of Geopolitical Coordinates of the Beginning of the 21st century]. Moscow, Saint Petersburg: Nestor-Historia. 312 p.

15. Kosévich E.Yu. (2020). Estrategias de seguridad cibernética en los países de América Latina [Cybersecurity strategies in Latin American countries]. Iberoamérica. No. 1. P. 137–159.

16. Levitsky S., Ziblatt D. (2018). How Democracies Die. New York: Crown. NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis. 320 p.

17. Marín Vargas G., Muñoz R. (2016). La encrucijada de la izquierda latinoamericana: tres dimensiones de una crisis. NUSO. OPINIÓN. 2016. URL: https://nuso.org/articulo/la-encrucijada-de-la-izquierda-latinoamericana-tres-dimensiones-de-una-crisis/ (accessеd: 22.12.2020).

18. OECD et al. (2019). Latin American Economic Outlook 2019: Development in Transition. Paris: OECD Publishing. 234 p.

19. OCDE et al. (2019). Perspectivas económicas de América Latina 2019: desarrollo en transición [Latin American Economic Outlook 2019: Development in Transition]. Paris: OECD Publishing. 252 p.

20. OCDE/CAF/CEPAL. (2018). Perspectivas económicas de América Latina 2018: Repensando las instituciones para el Desarrollo. Éditions OCDE, París. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/leo-2018-es

21. Okuneva L. (2020). Latinskaya Amerika prishla v dvizheniye: v chem smysl sotsial'nykh protestov oktyabrya 2019 goda? [Latin America Has Set in Motion: What Is the Meaning of Social Protests in October 2019?]. Latinskaya Amerika. No. 1. P. 8–21.

22. Pérez-Liñán, A. (2003). Presidential Crises and Democratic Accountability in Latin America, 1990-1999. In: Eckstein S. E., Wickham-Crowley T. P. (eds.) What Justice? Whose Justice: Fighting for Fairness in Latin America. Berkeley: Berkeley University of California Press. P. 98–132.

23. Revilla M. (2005). Ciudadanía y acción colectiva en América Latina. Tendencias recientes [Citizenship and collective action in Latin America. Recent trends]. Estudios Políticos. No 27. P. 29–41.

24. Stokes S. C. (2001). Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 220 p.

25. Valenzuela A. (2004). Latin American Presidencies Interrumpted. Journal of Democracy. Vol. 15. No. 4. P. 5–19.

26. Ventura C., Billion D. (2020) ¿Por qué protesta tanta gente a la vez? [Why are so many people protesting at the same time?]. NUSO. No. 286. Marzo – Abril. URL: https://nuso.org/articulo/por-que-protesta-tanta-gente-la-vez/ (accessеd: 29.09.2020).

27. Villagra L. R. (ed.) (2015). Neoliberalismo en América Latina. Crisis, tendencias y Alternativas. Asunción: CLACSO. 316 p.

28. Wise C., Roett R., Paz G. (2003). Post-Stabilization Politics in Latin America: Competition, Transition, Collapse. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. 306 p.

29. Yasunaga Kumano M. (2020). La desigualdad y la inestabilidad política en América Latina: las protestas en Ecuador, Chile y Colombia [Inequality and political instability in Latin America: protests in Ecuador, Chile and Colombia]. Documento de Opinión IEEE 22/2020: 1-17.

30. Zambrano R. E. R. (2020). Periodismo, redes sociales y protestas en América Latina. La Revista. URL: https://www.academia.edu/42713089/Periodismo_redes_sociales_y_protestas_en_Am%C3%A9rica_Latina

31. Zibechi R. (2003). Los movimientos sociales latinoamericanos: desafíos y tendencias [Latin American social movements: challenges and trends]. Revista del osal. No 9. P. 185–188.