SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Latin America has been swept up in a rapid chain of events over the past week. That's following the U.S. incursion into Venezuela and the removal of its president, Nicolás Maduro. President Trump is projecting U.S. power across the region on a scale not seen since the United States invaded Panama nearly four decades ago. But the response from some of Latin America's most strident leftist leaders has been subdued. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
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CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Supporters of Colombian President Gustavo Petro streamed into downtown Bogota last week, heeding Petro's calls to defend the nation's sovereignty.
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KAHN: After U.S. forces seized Venezuela's Maduro, President Trump hinted that Colombia and Petro, who Trump had accused of being a drug trafficker, could be the next target for U.S. military action.
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UNIDENTIFIED RALLYGOERS: (Chanting in Spanish).
KAHN: "Petro, friend, the people are with you," shouted the crowd as it waited to hear from the 65-year-old leftist leader.
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PRESIDENT GUSTAVO PETRO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: After three hours, Petro finally appeared in Bogota's huge Bolivar Plaza with a stunning explanation for his delay.
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PETRO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: He was on the phone with Trump.
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PETRO: (Speaking Spanish).
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KAHN: "It was an honor to speak with Colombian President Gustavo Petro." He reads Trump's Truth Social post as the crowd breaks into applause.
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PETRO: (Speaking Spanish).
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KAHN: And more enthusiasm as Petro says Trump has invited him to the White House.
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PETRO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: The following day, he posts a picture of a U.S. bald eagle nuzzling a Colombian jaguar. Apart from Cuba's steadfast defiance, Petro has recently become the Latin American left's leading voice, trading insults with Trump. But Massimo Modonesi, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, says above all, he's a pragmatic politician.
MASSIMO MODONESI: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "If he's attacked and there is no space for negotiation," Modonesi says, "Petro resorts to radical rhetoric."
Petro is part of a group of leftist leaders in Latin America, including the presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Chile, that swept into office during the last decade on a wave of progressive promises. But since the U.S. attack on Venezuela, many are taking a strikingly less defiant tone. Here's the newly installed interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, on state TV last week, displaying deft rhetorical skills to exhibit defiance and compliance.
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ACTING PRESIDENT DELCY RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "We will not surrender in the face of aggression," she says, while adding, "our hands are open to all countries in cooperation, including for energy agreements."
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RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: A clear capitulation to Trump's demands for a U.S. takeover of Venezuela's oil industry. Even Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's vociferous ideologue and feared head of the state's repressive police forces, has been mollified in recent days.
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DIOSDADO CABELLO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: On his long-running state TV show, usually taped before an energetic proregime audience, a fidgeting Cabello nervously rustles papers in his first episode since Maduro's capture.
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CABELLO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: None of this toned-down rhetoric is surprising, given Maduro's capture, says, Cornell University political scientist Santiago Anria. That's because Cabello is also a defendant in the U.S. indictment charging Maduro and his wife with drug trafficking. And political scientist Anria says the left in Latin America is at a crossroads.
SANTIAGO ANRIA: A left that was already pretty weakened and fragmented by its own mistakes in the past.
KAHN: The right has made major electoral gains in recent years throughout Latin America, including in Argentina, Ecuador and, most recently, Chile. And more wins could be coming this year in elections in Colombia and Brazil. Mexican political scientist Massimo Modonesi agrees.
MODONESI: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "The right political wave now sweeping Latin America is very strong," he says. "But don't discount a resurgence of the left. It's long championed unresolved issues the right hasn't, like the gaping income inequality plaguing the region."
Cornell political scientist Santiago Anria also urges caution for those declaring the death of Latin America's left.
ANRIA: I think they will be disappointed by that in the longer run, but it is surely a moment of reckoning and of reimagination.
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Bogota, Colombia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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