For the seventh consecutive year, in 2022, there was a decline in the democracy index in Latin America according to a report by youThe Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). In this sense, it is pointed out that the region is increasingly moving towards autocracy due to the existence of four authoritarian regimes: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela
For the seventh consecutive year, in 2022, there was a decline in the democracy index in Latin America according to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The average score of the fell to 5.79, below 5.83 in 2021. In this sense, it is noted that the region is moving more and more towards autocracy due to the existence of four authoritarian regimes: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The annual survey qualifies the state of democracy in 167 countries based on a group of variables and with a maximum score of 10: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of the government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.
Venezuela was ranked 147 out of 167 countries. Other authoritarian governments appear within the region, such as Nicaragua (143), Cuba (139) and Haiti (135).
“There is a risk that the list of autocracies in the region will grow, as several countries are experiencing a process of democratic rollback. The most prominent example is El Salvador, which recorded the second steepest score decline in the region, after Haiti, in 2022,” the report states.
The study refers to the strong-arm policies against crime and anti-system rhetoric that have made the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, be extremely popular. “This popularity allowed Bukele to undermine the checks and balances, including the replacement of the entire bench of the Supreme Court. In 2022 he announced that he will run for consecutive re-election despite constitutional limits, and a docile Supreme Court approved the measure », he highlights.
In Latin America, the This score is bolstered by having some of the strongest democracies in the world, such as Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Chile, yet they only account for 4% of the region’s total population. Meanwhile, 45% of the region’s population lives in a country that is a hybrid or authoritarian regime and 62% of Latin Americans reside in a country whose score decreased in 2022.
Likewise, Peru’s falling score reduces it to a “hybrid regime” of a “flawed democracy.” On a positive note, Chile recAccording to the report “Entitled Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine” Latin Americans have a low level of trust in state institutions, and the region is home to some of the most unequal and corrupt countries in the world, in both the capacity of the state was weakened by the growth of transnational criminal organizations.
After Venezuela, the list of the 20 worst countries in the world in the registry of democracies is made up of Burundi, Uzbekistan; Saudi Arabia, Libya, Eritrea, Belarus, Iran, Yemen, China, Tajikistan, Equatorial Guinea, Laos, Chad, Turkmenistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Central African Republic, North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan.
According to the 2022 report,2 almost half (45.3%) of the world’s population lives in some form of democracy, while more than a third (36.9%) lives under an authoritarian regime. The overall score of 5.29 out of 10, an increase of just 0.01 from the previous year, represents a stagnation rather than a reversal of the democratic recession that began in 2016, and which seemed likely.
According to the 2022 Democracy Index by regime type, 14.4% of the countries registered full democracies, 28.7% are defective democracies; 21.6% hybrid regimes and 35.3% of the countries have authoritarian regimes.
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