A protest in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2012. Flickr. Some rights reserved.In Latin America, after the long military dictatorships of the 20th century and the putting aside of the ideological polarizations which resulted in armed conflicts in several countries, the recovery or the setting up of the rule of law appeared to be the goal to reach, so as to safeguard a future where democracy and development could progress together.
It could well be said that the ambition at the turn of the century was to make political reality respond to the letter of the constitutions, an adjustment which had not been done since the independence days. No more, no less: to go back to the 19th century so as to be able to enjoy a 21st century based on the recovery of the body of ideas which founded Latin American liberal republics.
Our democracies began to function through the return to the fundamental right to choose, but the effectiveness of the institutions as safeguards against the dreaded comeback of the perverse concentration of power and single-person discretion over and above the law remained to be tested. This had been the persistent reality in Latin America since the 19th century which ended the dream enshrined in our glorious constitutions and the rule of law – something that our successive autocratic rulers always considered a childish nonsense.
