Five countries, seven months: Latin America just elected its fifth right-wing president in a row, and every winner had Washington's backing - Res.Publica

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Five countries, seven months: Latin America just elected its fifth right-wing president in a row, and every winner had Washington’s backing

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Two days ago, a millionaire lawyer with dual U.S.-Colombian citizenship and no prior political experience won Colombia’s presidential election by less than one percent. Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself "El Tigre," campaigned on building 10 mega-prisons modeled after El Salvador’s CECOT, cutting the state by 40%, resuming fracking, and dismantling the 2016 peace agreement that ended half a century of civil war. Trump posted on Truth Social: "Won, BIG!"

Colombia is not an isolated case. It is the fifth country in Latin America to elect a right-wing president in seven months.

The Chain

Honduras, November 30, 2025. Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party won with 40.3% in an election marred by a three-week vote count that drew international concern. Trump endorsed Asfura days before the vote, telling Hondurans on Truth Social that he was the only candidate Washington would work with. His opponent called it electoral interference. The margin was 0.74%.

Chile, December 14, 2025. José Antonio Kast won the presidential runoff with 58.2%, the second-highest margin since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990. Kast, a defender of the Pinochet dictatorship whose father was a member of the Nazi Party before emigrating to Chile in 1950, ran on mass deportation and a police force modeled after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He received 7.2 million votes, the highest total in Chilean history. Supporters at his victory rally wore red caps reading "Make Chile Great Again."

Costa Rica, February 1, 2026. Laura Fernández, a 39-year-old political scientist handpicked by outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves, won with 48.5% in the first round, avoiding a runoff in a field of 20 candidates. Her party secured 31 of 57 legislative seats, the first single-party majority since 1990. Her central promise: completing a mega-prison built with Bukele’s blessing and declaring a state of emergency in gang-controlled areas. She is opposed to abortion and has pledged to double the maximum prison sentence for women who have one to six years.

Peru, April 12, 2026. In a general election with 36 presidential candidates, right-wing Keiko Fujimori leads the preliminary count, with a tight race for the second runoff spot between left-wing Roberto Sánchez and right-wing Rafael López Aliaga. Final confirmation has been delayed by the review of more than 15,000 challenged ballots.

Colombia, June 21, 2026. De la Espriella won 49.7% against Iván Cepeda’s 48.7%, a margin of roughly 250,000 votes. Trump endorsed him earlier in June. The election had the highest turnout since Colombia introduced the runoff system in 1994. Outgoing President Gustavo Petro alleged irregularities without providing evidence. Cepeda refused to concede.

The Shared Playbook

Five elections in five countries over seven months. The winners share a remarkably consistent profile. All ran as tough-on-crime outsiders or anti-establishment figures. All cited El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele as a model. All promised mass deportation, mega-prisons, or both. All benefited from public frustration with rising violence and migration. And all received either direct endorsement or vocal support from the Trump administration.

The playbook has a template: identify public fear (crime, gangs, migration), propose a strongman solution (mega-prisons, emergency powers, military deployment), frame opponents as weak or corrupt, and signal alignment with Washington. The policies differ in detail but converge in tone. Kast in Chile proposed an ICE-modeled police force. Fernández in Costa Rica broke ground on a CECOT-style prison. De la Espriella in Colombia promised 10 mega-prisons. The brand travels.

The International Crisis Group noted before Colombia’s election that Washington would use "public messaging, threats or diplomatic pressure" to shape the outcome, and that regardless of who won, the U.S. would "flex its institutional relationships and financial support" to promote its interests. The Trump administration’s 2026 National Security Strategy explicitly names reducing the influence of Russia, China, and Iran in Latin America as a goal, to be achieved partly through supporting aligned governments.

The...