Amid soaring expectations, right-wing leaders across South America are finding themselves in a tight spot as their approval ratings plummet.

According to local Colombian media El Espectador and AFP on the 20th (local time), the approval ratings of right-wing leaders who assumed office this year are experiencing sharp declines. Public sentiment is rapidly deteriorating even before the typical "honeymoon period" with the opposition has ended.

According to an Ipsos poll released last week, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori's approval rating dropped sharply from 57% around the time of her inauguration in August to 40% just a month later. A poll by Datum also showed a "dead cross," where negative evaluations outnumbered positive ones after only a month in office.

Abelardo de la Espriella, the President of Colombia who took office around the same time as Fujimori, also saw his approval rating drop by over 3 percentage points in a single month.

The situation is even worse for Chilean President José Antonio Kast, who took office last March. In recent polls, a quarter of those who voted for Kast in the presidential election stated they regret their vote. His approval rating sits at a meager 30%, plunging him into a "lame duck" crisis just six months into his term.

Boluvian President Rodrigo Paz, who took office in November of last year, faced massive anti-government "resignation protests" just six months into his tenure. The country was pushed to the brink of collapse as anti-government protesters blockaded roads and disrupted logistics, causing skyrocketing prices for daily necessities and fuel. As the protests dragged on for over 50 days, pushing the administration to the edge, the Paz government declared a state of national emergency and applied for a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was subsequently driven to the desperate position of having to make humble requests to Chile, a neighboring nation with which it has a territorial dispute spanning over a century.

Argentine President Javier Milei, who had enjoyed popularity for a relatively long time, has also recently recorded his lowest approval rating ever, casting a "red light" on his reelection prospects.

These right-wing presidents came to power promising the eradication of crime, economic revival, and improved relations with the U.S., but they are losing their support base as they fail to deliver tangible results.

Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Washington-based policy think tank Inter-American Dialogue, explained in an interview with AFP, "Many of these governments created perhaps unrealistic expectations (for voters). People want quick results, but that is realistically impossible."

In fact, according to a survey by AmericasBarometer covering 25,000 people across 21 countries, public approval for leaders of the 8 right-wing allied nations belonging to the "Shield of the Americas," led by U.S. President Donald Trump, was shown to be universally weak. The surveyed countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic.

Guillermo Loli, head of polling at Ipsos Peru, emphasized regarding the issue of public safety—one of the most critical topics in the region—that "problems that have accumulated over years cannot be solved overnight, but at least concrete actions must be visible."

Of course, there are exceptions. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele remains the only right-wing leader in the region maintaining his popularity. Despite controversies over human rights abuses, he has carried out a hardline crackdown on gangs, securing an approval rating of over 80% even into his second term. As a result, he is widely favored for a third term in the upcoming presidential election next February.

However, critics point out that El Salvador is small in area and population, making its situation vastly different from other South American nations with vast territories, jungles, and mountainous terrain. For instance, Colombia alone is 54 times larger than El Salvador and encompasses both the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest.

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