Manuel Alcantara*

One of the most far-reaching advances in human development is related to limiting the use of power. Anointed for centuries with a magical character that justified its practice, whether through the unrestricted use of force, a religious or astral worldview or simply based on fantastic stories, it also remained within narrow blood circles or specific social groups configured by racial patterns, land tenure or the practice of a specific art in different tasks such as hunting, farming or trading.

The evolution of the human species established usages that culminated in norms that gradually regulated the exercise of power. Each social group had its own experiences that were experienced in the fertile valleys of Mesopotamia, the Nile or the Indus, as well as later on the heights of Machu Picchu or in the Mesoamerican jungles. There was not a single human community that did not stop to face the meaning of power, but also its justification.

a big empty place

The Enlightenment and the so-called liberal revolution, so closely associated with it, although they had their epicenter in Western Europe, did not fail to influence the rest of the world in their hypotheses and their consequences, especially America. The consequences had immediate effects on at least three policy-related issues: the construction, definition and development of nation-states; legal realm; and the idea that all power comes from the people. Power was therefore limited to space, subject to rules that counterbalanced its application, and required the support of the people.

In Latin America, despite the enormous heterogeneity of its countries, liberal constitutionalism, which was generally established for two centuries, dealt with the issue of government organization from the theoretical premises of presidentialism. If in the first decades the supremacy of the caudillos had to be faced, little by little it was accepted that the idea of ​​non-election should be more dominant. The Mexican Revolution, raised in 1910, under this assumption, was a very significant exemplary case.

This matter is not closed and reappears to the extent that they want to impose hegemonic projects. There are numerous examples in this sense. It is enough to recall the uneasy relationship that Juan Domingo Perón had with the principle of non-reelection, and later Alberto Fujimori, Carlos S. Menem, Hugo Chávez or Álvaro Uribe. On the other hand, clearly dictatorial regimes such as those of Somoza in Nicaragua, Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, and Rafael L. Trujillo in the Dominican Republic violated non-reelection.

The second brake of power was within it under the double idea of ​​division and balance. Political regimes with the classical three powers defined institutional arrangements that in theory determined that there would be no power over others and that they should implement a game of checks and balances in their daily activities. This scenario meant the opening of a huge number of conflicts in which the concept of controllability defined the state of affairs. To get an idea of ​​the impact they had in real life, in the last four decades in Latin America there have been about thirty presidential interruptions, eight of which were related to political trials of the president by Congress; six, for presidential resignations, followed by early elections; and two, a parliamentary declaration of presidential incapacity. For their part, three Congresses were dissolved by presidential decision.

Currently and soon, in what is the most immediate election calendar, there are three troubling cases in Latin America where the limits of power are being called into question due to the strict application of its time limits.

In 2024, in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro will again run for a third consecutive term as president, thanks to a permissive regulatory framework, but where the arbiter of the contest, the National Electoral Council, will play a partial role, since all its members will be replaced, but Maduro’s the wife, Cilia Flores, has a very remarkable effect in shaping the new.

On the other hand, as in 2024, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador continues his path towards the re-election of the president, bypassing the existing constitutional obstacle in this regard, and following the model of false constitutional interpretation of his neighbor Daniel Ortega.

Finally, Dina Boluarte just announced at a press conference that the possibility of moving the presidential elections in Peru is closed and will continue to work until July 2026. Although it is true that this is the period in which the period for The one who was elected, along with Pedro Castillo in 2021, is no less than when he took office after the fall last December, he declared that he would call elections within six months. Today, she clings to power with barely 15% approval rating for her management and no backbench in Congress, and depending on a fluke majority that could be instantly overturned.

Setting temporary restrictions on the exercise of power is a point that is related to the democratic quality of the political system. It is a regulatory matter, but also related to the democratic beliefs of those in power. On the other hand, it is a measure that removes from the political arena personalistic impulses that contribute to the patrimonialization of power, deinstitutionalization and, ultimately, the tendency to abuse that feeds corruption. (OR)

* Manuel Alcántara is professor emeritus at the University of Salamanca and UPB (Medellín). The most recently published books (2020): “El oficio de politico” (2nd edition, Tecnos, Madrid) and the one published in co-publishing with Porfirio Cardona-Restrepa: “Dilemmas of democratic representation” (Tirant lo Blanch, Colombia).

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