MAURICIO MACRI, the newly elected conservative president of Argentina, is attempting to push through brutal austerity measures while subordinating his administration to the United States. The only question is: Will he succeed? He won office by a small margin based on dishonest campaign pledges in a political climate that will make gutting the rights of workers and the poor difficult. So which way is the balance tipping at the end of his first three months in office?

The year 2015 ended with significant advances of the Right in South America. Mauricio Macri was elected President in Argentina, the opposition gained a majority in the Venezuelan parliament, and Dilma Rousseff is being hounded relentlessly in Brazil. Then
there are the conservatives‘ campaigns in Ecuador, and it remains to be seen whether Evo
Morales will obtain a new mandate in Bolivia. What is the nature of the period in the region? Has the period of governments taking their
distance from neoliberalism come to an end? The answer requires that we describe the particular features of the last decade.