The Death of the Caudillo

The Death of the Caudillo

By: Erreh Svaia

“Whenever I see that kind of story, where everybody agrees, I know there's something wrong.”

Nat Hentoff

Sunday marked what could be seen again as the end of an era in Latin America, what started more than a than a decade ago in Venezuela and Brazil (sponsored of course by wise guy left dictator Fidel Castro), created the explosive arrival for an old known phenomena in the continent called "caudillismo", a movement that evoked the emergence of a charismatic man capable of capturing the feelings and thoughts of the people, to whom unlimited powers should be given to him to lead a country in order to solve the common problems of the nation, people like Hugo Chávez and the Kirchners in Argentina got benefited from it, but times have changed in America, and like in recent times, it seems that “caudillismo” was defeated once again, this time in Bolivia, where president Evo Morales referendum to get approval to lead the country for a new period was defeated on the election day.

Evo's political defeat seems to be a sign of new winds in America, where people have simply turned always from believing so easily in “almighty heroes”, whose claim to power was the capability of being able to solve all the troubles of the citizens, people like Hugo Chávez and Lula Da Silva created this myth more than a decade ago, under the umbrella of the “Socialismo del Siglo XXI”, a political tendency that was no more than mere populism, authoritarianism and militarism disguised as a sort of social democracy for the new times of rising inequality in America, in people like Chávez and Da Silva, signs of "cults of personality" could be detected, also, an adaptation of both dictatorship regimes from the left (Cuba, Nicaragua) and right (Chile and Argentina).

In Venezuela, more than a decade ago, Hugo Chávez presented himself as the man who could defeat a corrupt system all by himself, a sort of antiestablishment persona, with a messianic vision to save his country, one who needed to be granted unlimited powers and multiple periods of government in order to mend the political system, in fact Chávez used China's explosive growth and jumped quickly on the bandwagon, thanks to China's oil thirst, Venezuela's oil prices and demand skyrocketed, creating big influx of capital which Chávez quickly affirmed as progress, the Chávez administration based his growth in oil bonanza, and increased public spent greatly, creating a big dependency of society towards government, but Chávez was not a Messiah, but an opportunist who died before his house of cards came down, as dependency on oil industry and lack of a future vision or technology investment made that period of bonanza a very short one.

Lula Da Silva became an icon of the left wing in Brazil, a man who came from unions and sold the image of a country entering the big leagues, propaganda was important and the Brazilian miracle was exported to all the world, Brazil became a part of the BRICS, countries whose growth was astonishing and promised a lot in the future, big money from foreign investors arrived to the Carioca country, but the illusion of the BRICS, again lasted for a little time, just as in the case of Venezuela, Brazil big bet was on oil and in China, and just as the USSR fall became a sign of the decline of communist countries like Cuba and North Korea, China economic slowdown marked the end of the Brazilian miracle with big accusations of corruption on the Lula´s and his successor Dilma Rousseff governments, and one of the worst recession cases in Latin America in recent years.

Other similar cases happened all over Latin America, in Argentina, the Kirchners tried to create a "caudillo", or messianic image of themselves, in Ecuador, it was the "love dictatorship" of Rafael Correa, and in Bolivia, it was the indigenous movement of Evo Morales, all movements coming from the left, with charismatic leaders who took advantage of a benefactor (China), in order to create an image of development, today, the messianic treat has been revealed and as Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina face their worst political and economic crisis, Ecuador and Bolivia say no to the desire of its presidents to like in Chávez case, to perpetuate it's periods, it seems that America has awaken from the messianic dream and is looking for more Democratic, transparent and institutional ways to solve its problems, buy while America says no, seeds of America's "caudillismo" have been exported to places like Spain, with the “Socialismo del Siglo XXI” of political party Podemos, and the wild antiestablishment Republican campaign of Donald Trump in the USA, again the myth of the “Messiah” who can save us all (like in México the PRI tried to sell the image of Enrique Peña Nieto on the Time Magazine portrait that proclaimed the infamous: “Saving México”, or like the outspoken messianic deliriums  of Andres Lopez of the MORENA political party) seems to be losing strength in the South, but reappearing again in the North (and even in Europe), the consequences we all know them, but can we learn form or previous mistakes or are we condemned to repeat them all over again and again? The “caudillo” appears to be dying on the left of the political spectrum, but taking new strengths on the right side at the time.