Conservative wave

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The conservative wave (Portuguese: onda conservadora; Spanish: ola conservadora), or blue tide (Portuguese: maré azul; Spanish: marea azul), was a right-wing political phenomenon that occurred in the mid-2010s to the early 2020s in Latin America as a direct reaction to the pink tide.

After a decade of left-wing governments, they suffered their first major electoral losses. In Argentina, Mauricio Macri (liberal-conservative, center-right) succeeded Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Peronist) in 2015. In Brazil, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, a socialist, resulted in her departure and the rise of Vice President Michel Temer to power in 2016, and later in 2018 to that of far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro, who became President of Brazil. The researcher on Latin America Mariana Llanos, however, considers it incorrect to "lump Macri, Pinera and Bolsonaro together."^[1] In Peru, the conservative economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski succeeded Ollanta Humala, a socialist and left-wing nationalist who is considered to have shifted towards neoliberal policies and the political centre during his presidency. In Chile, the conservative Sebastián Piñera succeeded Michelle Bachelet, a social democrat, in 2018 in the same transition that occurred in 2010. In Bolivia, the conservative Jeanine Áñez succeeded Evo Morales amid the 2019 Bolivian political crisis. In Ecuador, the centre-right conservative banker Guillermo Lasso succeeded the deeply unpopular Lenín Moreno, a former leftist who shifted rightward and distanced himself from his predecessor, Rafael Correa; in doing so, Lasso became the first right-wing President of Ecuador in 14 years.^[2]

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the conservative wave began to decline following left-wing victories,^[3][4] starting with the 2018 Mexican general election and the 2020 Bolivian general election, and later the 2021 Peruvian general election, 2021 Chilean presidential election, 2021 Honduran general election,^[5][6] the 2022 Colombian presidential election, which resulted in the first left-wing president in the country's history,^[7][8] and the 2022 Brazilian general election,^[9] in which former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had his political rights restored, defeated Bolsonaro.^[10][11] However, the right-wing was able to rebound with some victories in late 2023 such as right-wing libertarian Javier Milei winning the 2023 Argentine presidential election, defeating Peronist Sergio Massa as well as centre-right banana tycoon Daniel Noboa defeating leftist Luisa González in Ecuador.^[12][13]