It's not a quiet time for South America, sprung to the headlines in recent days for several outbreaks of tension. Above all, the situation in Chile is causing concern, a country which, in the words of its president, the conservative Sebastian Pineira, "is at war". The revolt over the increase in subway fares (nearly quadrupling since 2007) and over the very high cost of living in a country which in recent years had been a candidate to become an example of a virtuous economy in Latin America, it has already resulted in 11 deaths and 2.000 arrests across the country, with the army on the street as not seen since the days of the Pinochet dictatorship. The government's withdrawal of the disputed measures was of no avail: anger, especially among the younger population, has now exploded.
Last week it was Ecuador's turn, again for the same reason: the cost of living. Twenty thousand natives invaded Quito, put the president to flight, sacked and burned the capital, and finally forced the government to revoke the disputed measures. Neglecting the dramatic situation in Venezuela, which at least in the last period has not experienced an escalation, there is no shortage of tensions in Peru and Bolivia either. In Peru, the dissolution of the Congress and the calling of new elections have recently been achieved, after a series of three former presidents arrested, a fourth fugitive, a former head of state who committed suicide. The paralysis came because the majority was defending a crowd of corrupt people even among the highest echelons of the judiciary. Economic growth pays off: last year Peru ran at 5%, today at only 1,5%.
In Bolivia instead the hugely popular president Evo Morales, icon of the left all over the world, first broke the constitutional rules by running for a fourth term (he has been in office since 2005…), and then won last Sunday's elections on charges of fraud. According to the official results, the Andean leader clearly defeated the challenger Carlos Mesa (moreover his predecessor as president), but the opposition is ready to challenge the regularity of the vote: the situation is very tense throughout the country, with clashes between the opposing factions in La Paz, while an angry mob even set fire to the electoral tribunal in Sucre.
Finally, Argentina. South America's second largest economy is on the verge of another default: despite Macri's “cure” and the monstrous 56 billion loan obtained from the IMF, Buenos Aires is once again in full crisis. Not only growth is being affected (GDP -3% this year) but also inflation, which exploded to 54% with inevitable consequences on the living conditions of the population (the poverty rate is at an all-time high of 35%), intending to "punish" the liberal president in the elections scheduled for Sunday. Macri is trying everything to reassemble after the defeat in the August primaries, but the polls predict a debacle for him: the advantage of the Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez would be equal to or even greater than twenty percentage points. Whoever wins, a new corralito will remain on the horizon the day after the vote.
