The world is in transition from an imperialist monopolar structure to a multispolar structure. It is good news, because this game of weights and balances between powers has created the opportunity to create or strengthen spaces of autonomous and transformative sovereignty. In this context, the leftist governments of Latin America developed. Unfortunately, there has been an oasis in the landscape of progressive forces. Meanwhile, the hegemonic left-wing forces of the world have been drifting around the world.

The leftist purists have often criticised the transformative governments of Latin America: dependence on raw materials, extremism, weak projects to transform the economic structure, corruption, so-called democratic cracks or poor respect for nature. Although all the criticisms are supported by solid arguments, they are often made from the West with a non-constructive attitude. But let us not put aside the perspective, when the transformative left came to the governments of Latin America in these countries was an emergency situation.

The first obligation was to deal with the misery and disaster caused by neoliberalism. In the midst of this difficult situation, a process of creation and empowerment of the institutions was carried out to carry out public policies of redistribution. The starting point was insurmountable: the neoliberal structure and culture dominated, and in most cases the transformative movements were based on the social base only of the most humble classes, the left had no prepared boxes. However, the experiment has yielded satisfactory results despite the crisis.

The current photo may be more real than that of 12 years ago. The United States decriminalized a bit when it caught the waves on the left, but it learned, and by the hand of Barack Obama they returned to Latin America. The turning point was the coup d'état in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya in 2009. Since then, the US intervention has multiplied and strengthened, it is in offensive: In 2012, Paraguay suffered a soft coup to dismiss Fernando Lugo, in 2016 he was removed from Dilma Rousseff in Brazil and in 2015 the right-wing Mauricio Macri came to the presidency of Argentina.

Government erosion, falling commodity prices and active interventions in the United States may explain part of the crisis, but there is another factor. Progressive forces ignored polarization strategies to favor management discourse. The left bought the right-hand story, that is, citizenship was tired of the ideological-political burden. From this perspective it is understood that Rouseff has put an advocate of liberal economic orthodoxy in the Ministry of Economy or that the new presidential candidates of progressive parties are moderate and do not delude: In Argentina, Daniel Scioli (lost to Macri), Lenin Moreno in Ecuador or Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay.

With the crisis, neoliberalism has a problem, it is not easy to impose its model through elections. Lenin Moreno could be a traitor, but the elections were won by Alianza País; Chavismo has been greatly strengthened; Temer is hated in Brazil and Lula has all the options to win; Evo Morales has announced that he will continue in Bolivia; in El Salvador is FMLN; in Uruguay is Frente Ancha and in Nicaragua FSLN.

The right has had to commit massive electoral fraud in Honduras in order to maintain power, as international observers have acknowledged in the press. Macri and Temer are in a hurry to impose neoliberalism, it seems a hurry that will last little in power. In this sense, 2018 will be decisive in Latin America, as there are presidential elections in Brazil and Venezuela, pillars of the alliance of leftist governments.