Left vs right: see what the map of South America looks like after the presidential election in Colombia

Right vs Left: see what the map of South America looks like after the election in Colombia The victory of Abelardo de la Espriella in the presidential election of Colombia gave the right superiority over the left in the governments of South American countries. ✅ Follow the g1 international news channel on WhatsApp 📱Favorite g1 on Google and follow the main news of the day ▶️ Context: Abelardo de la Espriella, a candidate considered far-right, was declared the winner of the election for president of Colombia this Sunday (21), according to a preliminary count. In a tight vote, the right-winger was elected with 49.66% of the votes, against 48.7% for the leftist Iván Cepeda — a margin of just 250,000 votes.

The final result will be released in the coming days after counting all votes, in a process called "scrutiny". With Espriella's victory, the right surpassed the left in the governments of South America, controlling seven of the 12 South American countries. The victory marked not only an ideological turn in Colombia — since the candidate of the leftist president Gustavo Petro was defeated —, but also a consolidation of the advance of the right on the continent, which emerged victorious in the last three presidential elections: Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, in June 2026; José Antônio Kast in Chile, in December 2025; Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia, in October 2025. See on the map below what the current arrangement between right and left in Latin America looks like. Map shows arrangement between countries governed by the left and the right in Latin America after the election in Colombia in June 2026. Bruna Azevedo/Arte g1 Peru appears in gray on the map above because its election is at the end of the count, which has already lasted two weeks. Despite this, it is considered the 7th country governed by the right because the government leaving power is Dina Baluarte's, of the right, and the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has 50.111% of the votes, 41,000 ahead of the leftist Roberto Sánchez, with more than 99.6% of the ballot boxes counted.

In other words, the political trend will be maintained. Historically, political forces in the region alternate periods of dominance. Although the left prevailed on the continent at the beginning of the 21st century, with the so-called "pink tide", the right has recovered space in recent years. In recent months, the right has had the help of Chile and Bolivia to reach this scenario of a balance of power. After almost two decades in power, the left was left out of the second round of the Bolivian elections. The victory went to Rodrigo Paz, on October 19. In interviews conducted at the time of Rodrigo Paz's election in Bolivia, g1 heard experts explain the scenario of instability and polarization in the region. Check it out: Abelardo de la Espriella wins presidential elections in Colombia, preliminary count shows 🔍 Maurício Santoro, PhD in Political Science from Iuperj and collaborator at the Center for Political-Strategic Studies of the Brazilian Navy, explains that the continent experienced a conservative turn after 2010, with the exhaustion of the economic cycle started with the global "boom" of commodities. “What we have now is a continent that is well divided ideologically. What draws attention is having an international scenario marked by difficulty in dialogue and cooperation between Latin American governments of different ideological orientations.” 🔍 Regiane Nitsch Bressan, professor of International Relations at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), explains that Latin America experiences pendular moments in politics.

According to her, ideological alternation is something natural in democracies, but it becomes delicate when it occurs in contexts of institutional fragility. "There is a structural problem in Latin America due to our history, our economy, and the fact that we live with inequality and poverty. This leads to disbelief in democratic institutions. This pendular alternation easily moves towards authoritarian governments." READ ALSO: IDEOLOGICAL TURN: Right-wing candidate wins election in Colombia, preliminary count shows UNDERSTAND: How the scrutiny works, the process that officializes the result of the elections in Colombia PROFILE: Abelardo de la Espriella has US citizenship and is an 'anti-establishment' candidate REPERCUSSION: Espriella celebrates victory after preliminary count; Cepeda says result is not official Left vs right Abelardo De La Espriella Charlie Cordero/Reuters In the recent history of South America, left and right forces have alternated in power. Many countries experienced dictatorships in the second half of the 20th century, such as Brazil. In the 1990s, the scenario leaned towards governments with a conservative profile, with neoliberal agendas. 🔴 According to professor Maurício Santoro, the rotation between ideological currents was rare at that time, since more progressive parties had difficulties winning elections. The picture began to change in the early 2000s, with the so-called "pink tide". The term became popular after being used by journalist Larry Rohter, from the American newspaper The New York Times, after the victory of Tabaré Vázquez in the 2004 elections in Uruguay. At that moment, there was a feeling of change on the continent, driven by the desire to reduce poverty and inequality. The new left-wing governments came to power during the global rise of commodities, stimulated mainly by China's demand. With the increase in revenues, some administrations managed to invest in social programs and income redistribution policies. "Latin America's export products, agricultural or mineral, were highly valued in the international market. This gave a lot of money to the governments, and some presidents managed to use this money in a very good way," says Santoro. ➡️ Professor Regiane Nitsch Bressan explains that, after the 2008 world economic crisis, commodities began to lose value, which made it difficult for progressive governments to remain. In the following decade, the conservative camp regained space — a movement that also occurred in other parts of the world. "We cannot fail to observe that there is a great force of the right, and this does not happen only in our region. This movement begins, I would say, in the United Kingdom, with Brexit, which was great proof that the left was losing space," she says. "Then, this advance spreads to Europe, reaches the United States, and then to Latin America, where it still finds a lot of space." In 2015, South America had eight governments aligned with the left and four with the right. Three years later, the scenario reversed, with the advance of conservatives. This trend receded from 2020, after the pandemic. From 2026, six countries are governed by left-wing leaders and six by the right. Democracy and instability Protesters set fire to the Electoral Court of Sucre, in Bolivia, after allegations of fraud in the 2019 presidential election Jose Luis Rodriguez/AFP Even with the advance in recent decades, South America still faces challenges to consolidate democratic institutions. The democracy index of the Swedish institute V-Dem shows that the region has gone through ups and downs in the last 100 years. See in the chart below. 😡 Professor Regiane Nitsch Bressan highlights that democratic instability in the region has structural roots. According to her, the problems of inequality and poverty are constant threats because they fuel disbelief in institutions. "The Latin American people, being tired of democratic institutions, are very seduced by populist or neo-populist governments. That is, those governments that present catchy phrases and say they will solve the problem in the short term," she says. The phenomenon of the advance of the far-right is repeated in other parts of the world. Discourses in this sense appear in leaders of both the right and the left. As an example, the professor cites Hugo Chávez, former president of Venezuela, and Javier Milei, current leader of Argentina. Also according to her, recent polls show that part of the Latin American population prefers governments that offer quick economic solutions, even if they are authoritarian. Bressan assesses that the problem is not in political ideology, but in the risk of the emergence of authoritarian regimes. “I elect a left-wing politician with this discourse and he doesn't solve my problem. So I go there and swap him for a right-wing one. This pendular alternation easily moves towards authoritarian governments.” 🤜 Also added to this scenario are other challenges, such as the chronic confrontation between the Executive and Legislative branches — common in presidential regimes — and the political use of Justice in power disputes, which weakens the Rule of Law and empties institutions. “The process of redemocratization in Latin America is still very young, and we have not yet managed to strengthen and consolidate our democratic institutions,” she says. Political scientist Maurício Santoro complements by saying that, currently, one of the main factors of concern is polarization. According to him, leaders from different ideological spectrums have become more extreme in their proposals and lost the ability to dialogue. Uruguay is an exception — where right and left alternate in power without the presence of extremes. “Regional polarization is making integration initiatives and unified responses to political and security challenges, such as the advance of organized crime and even the long Venezuelan crisis, unfeasible.” 🌎 Santoro also assesses that the political instability of recent years in South America is part of a broader global crisis, which also affects countries in Europe, in addition to the United States. VIDEOS: trending on g1 See the videos that are trending on g1.