Narrating Autocracy: Political Discourse in Latin America’s Pink Tide

The 2000s witnessed a wave of social movements throughout Latin America that brought Leftist regimes into power. From Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, to Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, the dubbed 'Pink Tide' colored the continent with promises of democratic innovation and social egalitarianism. Chávez’s summon for a new Bolivarianism to radically oppose the failed policies of neoliberalism, unbolted the dams of Latin American politics to a stream of traditionally marginalized groups. Their main innovation was the re-fabrication of the Latin American political system through ballots and not bullets. Yet the promising social democracies of the Pink Tide’s early years devolved, giving way to governmental affronts to the media, brutal subjection of opposition groups and constitutional reforms abolishing presidential term limits. Against this backdrop, the Pink Tide today beckons an analysis of such transformation of regime identity. This book asks how these Latin American leaders legitimated their radical rule and guides readers through their autocratizing discourse.