Trump, a Latin American caudillo?

(Photo: Gerald Herbert – AP)

What irony! Just when Latin America is beginning to despise messianic autocrats, the United States and Europe seem to be embracing them.

It’s as if the world had been suddenly turned upside down. Judging from the recent New Hampshire primary results, U.S. voters — generally known for electing responsible leaders — may be falling for a narcissist demagogue with no political experience like Donald Trump, whose entire campaign is based on his untested claim that “I will make America great again!”

It’s not just Trump in the United States. Whether it’s President Vladimir Putin in Russia, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Turkey’s Recep Erdogan, or rapidly rising opposition leaders such as Marine Le Pen in France, charismatic nationalists are popping up across the northern hemisphere.

Perhaps because of a growing gap between the super-rich and the not-so-rich, many people are angry, and turning to xenophobic populists. In most cases, these leaders blame foreigners for their countries’ problems, oppose free trade deals, promise to bring back a real or imagined golden era of the past, demonize the free press as an alleged arm of shady oligarchs, and present themselves as saviors of the fatherland.

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