As Trump flails in the Middle East, it looked for a minute like the only place that U.S. imperialism and the Far Right were growing stronger was Latin America. But several expressions of class struggle and left-wing phenomena in countries throughout the region are challenging Trump’s plans to re-establish the region as one dominated by U.S. military, economic, and political power. Students, workers, and the socialist Left are rising up against austerity put forward by far-right governments linked to Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine.”

In Argentina, where President Javier Milei is one of Trump’s most subservient allies, one million people flooded the streets on May 12 against Milei’s attacks on public universities. In fact, Milei is in a deep crisis, facing plummeting approval ratings as it’s become clear to workers that his “radical libertarian” economic agenda only serves the country’s wealthy elite. But it is not just hatred of Milei that is growing. The Left is growing stronger, a point which can be seen in the “Myriam Bregman phenomenon,” with polls showing the Trotskyist congresswoman is the most popular political figure in the country.

While the growth of the Far Left can mainly be seen in Argentina, neighboring countries are seeing their own examples of workers and students rising up against the Far Right. Both Bolivia and Chile have seen short honeymoon periods for the newly elected administrations of Rodrigo Paz (Bolivia) and José Antonio Kast (Chile), who have tried to carry out their own attacks on workers’ rights and environmental protections in service of U.S. imperialism and extractivist capital.

The same day that Argentinians flooded their cities in defense of public universities, Bolivians launched a general strike against Paz’s austerity agenda. Led by the country’s Indigenous movements and trade unionists, and fueled by outrage against worsening economic conditions and land privatization, Bolivians are demanding the president’s resignation.

In Chile, the historically important student movement is re-emerging after years of containment under the center-left Boric administration. As Kast pursues his own attacks, there have already been several combative marches in response. One of the most important just occurred on May 14, where high school and university students united in a massive march, despite violent police repression and efforts by the student movement bureaucracy to prevent the students from uniting their demonstrations.

As for Brazil, São Paulo is seeing a convergence of fights against the austerity of the state’s Bolsonarist governor, with students at the University of São Paulo leading the charge. The students, who have occupied the rector’s office on their campus to demand better conditions for the university, have also received support from the university’s union which recently won concessions in a strike, as well as teachers who are on strike throughout São Paulo and surrounding areas.

Against the Regional Far Right and U.S. Imperialism

The confrontations with far-right projects in South America come against the backdrop of Trump acting increasingly aggressively in what he and the U.S. ruling class have long considered imperialism’s backyard.

The methods of escalating intervention range from a growing presence of U.S. troops in Ecuador and Panama to the revelations of “Hondurasgate,” which showed the United States, Argentina, and Israel collaborating to sabotage more progressive governments in Central America. The consequences can be seen from Cuba where Trump’s oil embargo is depriving the island nation of basic food and medical supplies, to Venezuela where the administration of Delcy Rodriguez is handing the country over to U.S. control at a rapid pace.

The few remaining “left-wing” governments in Latin America, rather than confronting a historic attack on their countries’ sovereignty, are more concerned with containing the very class struggle that could actually put U.S. imperialism on the defensive. No one more shamelessly displays this than President Lula in Brazil, who has more leverage than perhaps any other leader in the region, but instead cozies up to Trump, opening up the country’s minerals to the United States. Even in Cuba, where the Trump administration is acting most aggressively, the bureaucracy is more concerned with moving towards capitalist restoration at the expense of the last traces of the country’s revolutionary gains from 1959.

In the face of Trump’s imperialist offensive throughout Latin America, and various forms of complicitly from leaders throughout the Americas, the class struggle currently unfolding must be understood as an opportunity to deal a blow to the Donroe Doctrine. If these struggles can unite across borders, they will be even stronger. They already share common enemies.

In the United States, where the genocide in Gaza and war on Iran has activated anti-imperialist sectors of the youth and union activists, those who have risen up against imperialism in the Middle East must also firmly oppose U.S. aggression in Latin America. The socialist Left in the United States has an important role to play in amplifying the struggles arising in South America, showing our solidarity and raising explicit demands against U.S. military forces in Latin America and the Caribbean and all attacks on Latin American sovereignty.

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