Ecuadorean Culture Minister: Left in Latin America Is Not Dead

Despite international threats to progressive politics and regional integration, the left in Latin America is far from over, said Ecuador’s Minister of Culture Guillaume Long on Tuesday in the wake of a right-wing opposition win in Venezuela’s parliamentary elections.

Latin America is experiencing a “process of weakening of progressive political progresses,” but left-wing governments are not defeated in the region, despite such claims in international mainstream media, Long told EFE during a CELAC meeting with Chinese political parties in Beijing.

“Clearly, the political right is taking advantage of the current economic conjuncture, which is the least favorable of the last 15 to 16 years in Latin America,” Long said to EFE.

Inicio día en Beijing con @PrensaLatina_cu @teleSURtv @EFEnoticias: elecciones Vzla, encuentro partidos CELAC-China pic.twitter.com/6C2wn9BXeW

— Guillaume Long (@GuillaumeLong) December 8, 2015

“Start of the day in Beijin with Prensa Latina, teleSUR, and EFE: Venezuelan elections, CELAC-China parties meeting.”

This economic situation includes the plummeting global oil prices and low prices of other natural resources that has allowed right-wing forces to chip away at progressive politics in the region, Long explained to Prensa Latina.

The statements come after the Venezuelan opposition MUD coalition took control of the National Assembly in Sunday’s election, winning 107 seats of a total 167 while the ruling socialist GPP coalition, including President Maduro’s PSUV party, won 55 seats. Representatives holding three indigenous seats are also likely to side with the opposition given their right-wing alliances. Two National Assembly seats are not yet announced.

ANALYSIS: The New Contours of Latin America's Right

But Long told EFE that it remains to be seen whether the opposition gains in Venezuela, as well as right-wing President-elect Mauricio Macri’s recent win in Argentina, will amount to “historical bankruptcy or a battle won.”

The minister expressed optimism that left-wing forces will regroup and remained firm that Latin America’s pink tide of left-wing government is not over despite facing challenges.

No es el fin de la izquierda en América Latina, dice #GuillaumeLong https://t.co/l85HDulZmw pic.twitter.com/6z0AREDbt8

— Ecuavisa (@ecuavisa) December 8, 2015

“It is not the end of the left in Latin America, says Guillaume Long.”

“Chavez was the first to win in the neoliberal context, he was the first to begin a constituent process, and later we had it in Ecuador, Bolivia,” Long told Prensa Latina. “He was a strong leader and I don’t think the people will allow that legacy to be destroyed.”

Long said that although right-wing alliances in the region and international forces are working to undermine Latin American integration and the regional movement to break imperialist domination, it is still a priority for many to continue to build Patria Grande, a term that roughly translates to “big homeland.”

ANALYSIS: Ecuador's Opposition and Right-Wing Strategies in the Region

“We are trying to reach the Patria Grande that (South American independence leader) Simon Bolivar dreamed of,” Long told Prensa Latina. “We are battling for our second and definitive independence.”

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, known as CELAC, has been an important body for furthering regional integration.

Long, a minister with the ruling PAIS Alliance party, spoke from China where he is participating in a China-CELAC Forum of Political Parties.

WATCH: Guillaume Long speaks to teleSUR English about right-wing protests in Ecuador