In opposition to some scholars who maintain that analyzing Latin America’s current political situation using the concepts of left and right is inadequate, the author afirms that such concepts are not only pertinent for interpreting the region’s situation, but also represent the region’s current repolitization since that conceptual dichotomy expresses the confrontational character of politics. Such confrontational character disappeared in the 80’s and 90’s due to three factors: authoritarian regimes, neoliberalism, and the left’s ambiguous attitude towards its participation in the political democratic game and in elections. The current repolitization expresses itself in the left’s revalorization of democracy, its rejection of neoliberal reforms and the anticapitalism of some of its sectors. On the other side, the ambiguity and complexity of such repolitization expresses itself in the hibridation of leftist politics into a radical, moderate, populist, and ethnic left, which characterizes some of the region’s current political regimes.

Latin America --- left --- right --- democracy --- dictatorship --- hegemony.

The author critiques the political project known as “21st century socialism”, developed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, from a Liberal perspective of moral pluralism (which should not be confused with neoliberalism). In opposition to such liberal ideas, totalizing utopias, such as Chavez’s socialism, do not acknowledge the nature of critical rationality, and therefore end up imposing on society as a whole a substantive idea of the good life that does not recognize individual autonomy and moral pluralism.

Venezuela --- socialism --- liberalism --- morality --- pluralism.

The object of this article is to analyse the recent phenomenon of the left’s advance in South America. Besides considering institutional and structural factors which contribute to the comprehension of the left’s diverse expressions in the south of the continent, the analysis revolves around ideological and discursive aspects that give unity to the phenomenon. Starting from the hypothesis that the advance of the left in the region is linked to a process of hegemonic fights in societies with structural crisis, this article offers evidence that enlightens possible causal and explanatory factors of such a phenomenon from the perspective of discursive theory.

South America --- left --- discourse --- ideology.

During the first semester of 2006, political science students from the University of the Andes held their second symposium. One of the papers presented and its corresponding critique made by one of the department’s professors is here transcribed. While the student maintains that a dichotomy exists in the choice of simplification over complexity in the analysis of social phenomena, the professor argues from an interpretative perspective, that the problem has nothing to do with adding or reducing variables.

research methodology --- social sciences --- political science

Colombia is an exception in the current Latin American political context due to its turn to the right when most of the region’s regimes have turned to the left. Since Alvaro Uribe’s presidential election in 2002, the country has become increasingly polarized, and in this course Uribe embodies an emerging right with considerable popular support. This essay tries to explain and characterize Colombia’s turn to the right, a process that presents different dimensions such as populism, criminalization of both the armed and the legal left, and social spending priorities considerably distant from the neoliberal orthodoxy.

Colombia --- Colombian politics --- Latin América --- right --- left --- uribism --- Polo Democrático Alternativo

In a process that dates back to the 1980’s, national elites have been replaced by regional ones. This process is associated with phenomenons such as state weakness, drug trafficking and paramilitarism, which produce deep social transformations that have a negative effect on Colombia’s democracy, economy and moral patterns.

Colombia --- Colombian politics --- elites --- drug trafficking --- paramilitarism