| Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up here. The political winds are shifting again in Latin America — this time, sweeping away leftist leaders who largely failed to live up to expectations. Inspired by the apparent successes of Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” budget cuts in Argentina and Nayib Bukele’s iron-fisted security policies in El Salvador, a new wave of right-wing politicians seems poised to win a majority of the presidential contests scheduled across the region this year and next. The transformation is already evident in Bolivia, where two decades of almost-uninterrupted socialist governments left the commodities-based Andean economy collapsing. Angered by food shortages and soaring prices, voters on Sunday picked two pro-business candidates for a run-off in October. In Chile, prospects for another leftist government are dimming after Gabriel Boric, a former student radical who stormed to the presidency in 2021 as the world’s youngest head of state, largely failed to implement the core policy promises that got him elected.  José Antonio Kast, presidential candidate for Chile’s Republican Party, whom polls show as the favorite. Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg Instead, his presidency may be remembered, if at all, for a battle against crime and undocumented migration — causes long championed by the right. The situation of the left in Colombia isn’t very different. President Gustavo Petro’s pledges for “total peace” through negotiations with guerrillas largely backfired, and a recent wave of terror attacks has stirred memories of the dark days of the 1990s, when cocaine cartels made the South American nation the most violent on Earth. The key question ahead of Colombia’s March election is whether the conservative opposition can regroup after losing its most popular presidential contender, Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, who died two months after being gunned down while campaigning in Bogotá. Among all incumbent leftist leaders whose mandates are expiring, only Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seems to have a fighting chance in next year’s election. While many Brazilians are disappointed with his government, the veteran politician’s popularity has rebounded since he adopted a nationalist message to defend the country against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. With the right apparently on the rise across Latin America, Lula could soon be ploughing a lonely furrow. — Walter Brandimarte  Mourners attend a public funeral service for Miguel Uribe in Bogotá on Aug. 13. Photographer: Fernanda Pineda/Bloomberg | 
