Global Journal of Human Social Science, F: Political Science, Volume 23 Issue 6

Source: Our World in Data. Stability of Democratic Institutions (2023) 2 Figure 2: Stability of Democratic Institutions Index: Shows the effectiveness and efficiency of democratic institutions and the degree to which they are accepted by relevant social actors. In the last four years, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia have experienced social and political instability, which explains the trends observed on Table 1 and in Figure 2. In 2022, presidential elections in Brazil were extremely polarized due to the dispute between the incumbent president, the far-right politician, Jair Bolsonaro, who governed from 2019 to 2022 and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist-oriented former president who governed from 2003 to 2010 (Zilli and Couto, 2017). Throughout his term in office, Bolsonaro cultivated distrust of the electronic ballot box system among his supporters and threatened not to recognize election results after his defeat; he even plotted a coup d'état to annul the results and remain in power. The coup attempt did not succeed, and Lula was inaugurated as the president; yet Bolsonaro's supporters invaded the capital, the National Congress and the Supreme Court buildings. These actions were aimed at mobilizing their supporters and the Armed Forces to join the coup attempt, but democratic institutions resisted. However, the calls for a coup d'état resonated with some sectors of the Armed Forces. Even though this group is a minority and not strong enough to achieve the coup's objectives, their actions brought the light the weaknesses of the Brazilian democracy. Colombia has also faced instability, especially during the 2020-2021 period. Instability is related to challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of long-standing social and political problems, which have combined to fuel an anti-system sentiment and the rejection of traditional party candidates. Against this backdrop, Gustavo Petro came to power in Colombia. The president-elect was a left-wing leader who began his political career as a trade union leader. However, when he took office, he adopted a pragmatic stance and formed a governing coalition with center-leaning parties. This guaranteed him a majority in Congress and facilitated the establishment of progressive reforms. Although social and political tensions were not completely eliminated, this strategy increased governability and reduced pressure on democratic institutions. Peru's democracy was severely tested in 2021, when Congress voted and approved the removal of the president—the third impeachment attempt in his mere 15 months in office. Anticipating this outcome, President Pedro Castillo announced that he would close Congress and call early legislative elections just before his removal was to be voted upon. He planned to govern by decree, restructure the judiciary branch and impose a national curfew. These actions, representing a coup attempt, quickly failed and the Peruvian Congress removed him from office shortly after the announcement. He was then arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Although the coup attempt did not materialize, Peru's democratic institutions were severely shaken during the fifteen months that Castillo was in power. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue VI Version I 33 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( ) F Homicide Rates in Fragile Democracies: Reflections on the Paradoxes of Latin America 2 The data available on the Our World in Data website was organized and initially published by the Bertelsmann Foundation (Bertelsmann Transformation Index 202 Available at https://bti-project.org/en/downloads)