Brazil Election: Lula's Victory Over Jair Bolsonaro Strengthens Latin America's 'Pink Tide | Is It Bad News for the U.S.?

World leaders have sent their best wishes to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after winning a third term as president of Brazil, the largest country in Latin America.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, congratulated Lula da Silva on his win in Brazil elections.

"We celebrate the victory of the Brazilian people, who on October 30, elected Lula da Silva as the new President," Nicolás Maduro wrote, declaring that "democracy has triumphed in Brazil."

Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister, sent his congratulatory message to Lula da Silva in both Spanish and Portuguese.

"Congratulations on the victory in this election in which Brazil decided to hope for progress and hope," he posted on Twitter.

Porto Canal noted that the presidents of Colombia and Argentina also sent their best wishes to the new leader of Brazil.

Lula's victory over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro strengthened the "pink tide" of elected leftist leaders in Latin America, according to Reuters. Brazil has joined a rising leftist coalition with Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Gustavo Petro of Colombia, who took office as his nation's first leftist leader in June, tweeted, "Long live Lula."

"Congratulations brother," wrote Bolivian President Luis Arce. "Your victory strengthens democracy and integration in Latin America."

What Is 'Pink Tide' in Latin America?

In the early 2000s, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Lula himself led a wave of leftist governments that became known as the "pink tide." In the following decades, the countries shifted to the right.

But the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of severe inflation forced angry Latin American voters to abandon mainstream parties and pursue promises of increased social expenditure, which brought back the pink tide.

Diego Sanchez-Ancochea, the head of Oxford University's Department of International Development, believes that most Latin American voters are dissatisfied with the region's slow economic growth and high levels of inequality and are searching for leaders who can contribute to resolving these issues.

Moreover, Edward Murphy, an expert and Associate Professor at Michigan State University, told TRT World that there is a deep disgust with living conditions and the political environment in most countries, so leftist calls for transition resonate for many.

A shift from the neoliberal economic model toward more progressive economic and social policies was referred to as the pink tide.

According to Murphy, the pro-free market neoliberal concept, which was very popular in the 1990s and 2000s, never got enough support from the public. The model led to crises and unfairness that could not be fixed.

Even though the so-called "pink tide" governments did not always solve these problems, they were in charge when Latin American exports were in high demand. Generally, they can use the taxes from these exports to support redistributive policies, as Lula did in Brazil, Murphy added.

Growing Leftist Government in Latin America, 'Bad News' for the U.S.?

In the past four years, right-wing governments that had been in power for almost 20 years have been replaced by socialist and social democratic ones, giving Latin America a significant shift.

In June of this year, Gustavo Petro, a former member of the April 19 Movement, won the presidential election in Colombia.

In December 2021, Leftist politician Gabriel Boric was elected president of Chile, becoming the country's most left-wing leader in nearly 50 years.

Xiomara Castro, a leftist politician, won in Honduras a month earlier. Her husband, Manuel Zelaya, had been deposed as president in a military takeover 12 years earlier.

Pedro Castillo, a teacher and union leader, was elected president of Peru in June 2021.

Luis Arce of the Movement to Socialism party became the president of Bolivia in 2020.

Alberto Fernández, backed by a coalition of left-leaning parties, beat the right-leaning incumbent President Mauricio Macri in Argentina's 2019 presidential election.

In Mexico's general elections a year ago, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) won by a considerable margin.

The October 30 Brazil elections marked the most significant change when left-wing Lula da Silva, leader of the Workers' Party (P.T.), won, Al Jazeera reported.

Some claim that the "pink tide" of left-leaning administrations that took power in the 1990s is being continued by this new wave.

Leaders on the left during that time opposed neoliberal policies, the injustice and social exclusion they brought about, as well as political corruption and foreign influence over national economies.

They were ousted from the government in the 2010s because it became more difficult for them to address persistent issues due to a decline in the price of export goods.

Now, leftist governments are returning because the right-wing ones who replaced them and were mostly supported by the U.S. failed to comprehend the people's grievances.

The region's younger generation of political leaders disagrees with the U.S.'s long-standing presence there, but they also have other objectives.

It is less concerned with a continental identity and more concerned with environmental and gender issues.

It puts a lot of effort into promoting social justice and has been increasingly concerned with public health since COVID.

Whether or not they believe it holds leftist views is irrelevant. In reality, it seeks to find new ways to govern the nation by capitalizing on the anger of its supporters.

They are also becoming accustomed to foreign investment, although more from China than the U.S.

There is little doubt that Latin America is changing, but Washington does not seem to know how much.

The National Security Advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, John Bolton, said the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was still in effect in 2019.

According to this strategy, the U.S. owned Latin America and warned other nations to keep it away; but it was obvious that he had miscalculated how his ideas would be received across the continent.

The U.S. kept making poor choices about the region when Joe Biden became president of Washington.

The Summit of the Americas took place in Los Angeles in June 2022. Bolton referred to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as the "troika of tyranny," but they were not present.

It received a lot of negative press. Several Latin American leaders, including the Mexican president, did not attend, but others used the occasion to condemn U.S. foreign policy.

Washington has supported the wrong people in the region for far too long, like dictatorial military leaders and wealthy businessmen, many of whom were educated or trained in the U.S.

For far too long, U.S. governments have not understood that people in Latin America want to change, which has caused U.S. favorites to leave power.

In certain nations, they have spoken out against corruption and human rights violations, but not in those where the U.S. has supporters in positions of authority.

They have overlooked the truth that inequality is increasing, poverty is getting worse, and rallies against injustice are violently put down.

Washington ultimately needs to quit playing favorites and acting enraged about just some of the Latin Americans and start understanding what they want.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Can a rise of leftist leaders bring real change to Latin America? - From Al Jazeera English