The crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the development of social media have provided a renewed impetus to peoples' aspirations to live under democratic rule. Political movements with dictatorial designs have been obliged to conceal their ulterior objectives and elaborate new tactics aimed at enticing the population and ultimately seizing power.
Nowhere is this opportunistic change of tack more visible than in Latin America. Guerrilla warfare (like Colombia's FARC) and attempts of coup d'état (like Hugo Chavez's in 1992) have gone out of fashion. Far-left parties, which in the past had professed a blatant disdain for the electoral way, now prefer to compete in presidential elections, trumpeting their supposed faith in democracy and extolling their passion for liberty.
This has been the stance taken by the leaders of the so-called 'Bolivarian axis' – namely Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales – as well as the Kirchnerists in Argentina.
And yet, as soon as elections are won, a sinister mechanism is put in place; one aimed at progressively corroding freedom of expression and association, the independence of the judiciary and political pluralism.
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