Evangelism, in its many manifestations, is the most powerful new religious force in Latin America today. The evangelical churches even have the capacity and money to influence elections in the region. According to historian Andrew Chesnut, "the strong influence of rising evangelicals is one of the main trends of current politics in the Americas."
In Brazil, a country with a strong evangelical tradition, 22.2% of the population identified as evangelical in 2012, which compares with only 5% in the 1970s. In the absence of more up-to-date reliable statistics, all indicators point to the fact that this figure will have increased significantly in recent years.
Some political scientists have even suggested that the evangelical vote succeeded in swaying the vote towards Bolsonaro in the presidential elections last year, thanks to his extreme beliefs, which gained him the support of many pastors who then promoted him to their followers.
In return, Bolsonaro even appointed an evangelist pastor, Damares Alves, as the Minister of Human Rights, Family and Women as a member of his government. Today, the so-called “evangelical bench” in the Brasilia Congress is bigger and more powerful than ever.
In Mexico, the Evangelical Social Encounter party managed to create an electoral alliance with the current president, López Obrador, obtaining its largest number of seats in Congress throughout history. In Bolivia, with Jeanine Áñez replacing Evo Morales fraudulently, evangelical right wing politics gained an unusual force.
Áñez came to accuse indigenous people of praying to satan and enthusiastically celebrated the "return of the Bible to the Government." In Guatemala, former President Jimmy Morales openly identified as an evangelical and his successor, Giammettei, retains many ties with the evangelical community.
Undoubtedly, evangelicals in the region are happy about the existence of an ideological conflict within the Catholic church that is helping to weaken its greatest religious rival in the region. However, catholicism still remains hegemonic and is the official religion of all Latin American countries, and in all countries except for Guatemala and Honduras, more than 70% said they still identify as Catholic.
It seems that the idea of keeping two Popes alive has not turned out as hoped, which prevents the Catholic Church from recovering the initiative in this scenario of enormous competition for Latin American souls. It seems that the Argentine Pope knows this very well, but in Rome the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.
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