Geopolitics 411

  Race relations in the Pink Tide countries of Latin America
By Croix Fenton

Race relations are very relevant in the Pink Tide countries, which most notably include Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, and more recently, Brazil.

I decided to mostly highlight Venezuela and Mexico, as these countries have large populations, and have led the pink tide movement.

The Pink Tide is a “political wave” of countries that have moved towards a more left-wing government. Many of these countries are members of the São Paulo Forum. The Pink Tide began in the 1990s, being led by Hugo Chávez, and later reappeared in the 2020s. The Pink Tide was influenced by U.S.-led coup d'états, which installed right-wing governments and resulted in many human rights cases of abuse. These U.S.-led right-wing governments affected virtually every Latin American country except for Costa Rica. These right-wing governments had mostly fallen by the 1990s.

Firstly, I would like to begin in Venezuela. Venezuela is often considered a majority Black country, however, only about 4% of its population actually self-identifies as Black. The Venezuelan states having the highest amounts of self-reported Black people include the most developed Venezuelan state, Miranda, with 5.2% or 157,506 Black people, and the much poorer Delta Amacuro, a state that was recently admitted to Venezuela in the 1990s, having 7% of its population self reporting as Black, or 12,011 people.

Venezuela is considered to be THE most prominent Pink Tide country, with its former president, Hugo Chávez, often considered the leader of the Pink Tide, before his death at the age of 58, in 2013. Even with the death of Chávez, the Pink Tide continued with his successor, Nicolas Maduro.

The Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), which is the political party of the current president, Nicolas Maduro, and the former president, Hugo Chavez has made many policies that are combating the legacy of racism in Venezuela and has also assisted many of the majority African countries of the Caribbean with similar initiatives. Their government has also made it a priority to assist Black people in getting access to jobs and important social services.

Venezuela has had a long history of racism. Venezuela has been well-known for its beauty queens, which often use white beauty standards. The organizer of what is considered to be the most important beauty pageant in Venezuela has made racist claims stating “black women are not pretty”, which is entirely false. Venezuela also had a whitening policy that lasted into the 1940s, encouraging European immigration to improve Venezuela’s “race”. Professional occupations were often held by whites, and low-paying blue-collar jobs were often held by mixed-race and Black people.

Nextly, there is Mexico. While many people associate Mexico being a homogeneous mixed-race country, many people do not understand the extent to which discrimination is prevalent in Mexico. Black people do exist in Mexico, and as of the 2020 Census, there are over 2.5 million Black people living in Mexico, or about 2% of the population. The state of Guerro has the largest proportion of Black residents, with Black people making up about 8% of the population in that state.

In Mexico, there is a common belief that “true Mexicans” are those who are mixed white, and indigenous (Rodríguez), and the government often attempts to erase Black history from the country's culture. Mexico has also had a caste system, with Spaniards at the top, mestizos in the middle, and Africans and indigenous people at the bottom. Many people associate having darker skin with decreased wealth and less schooling, and there is often a pay gap between other groups and Black people. Skin tone also determines your social mobility, with poorer darker skinned people often remaining poor for the rest of their lives.

Works Cited

Villanueva, Marycarmen Lara. “In Mexico, How Erasing Black History Fuels Anti-Black Racism.” The Conversation, theconversation.com/in-mexico-how-erasing-black-history-fuels-anti-black-racism-175315.

Rodríguez Mega, Emiliano. “How the Mixed-Race Mestizo Myth Warped Science in Latin America.” Nature, vol. 600, no. 7889, 13 Dec. 2021, pp. 374–378, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03622-z, 10.1038/d41586-021-03622-z.

Crutchfield, Joshua L. “La Afrovenezolanidad: A Historiography of the Black Experience in Venezuela.” AAIHS, 30 Mar. 2022, www.aaihs.org/la-afrovenezolanidad-a-historiography-of-the-black-experience-in-venezuela/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2023.

Marsh, Hazel. “Venezuela’s Long History of Racism Is Coming back to Haunt It.” The Conversation, theconversation.com/venezuelas-long-history-of-racism-is-coming-back-to-haunt-it-82199.

http://www.ine.gob.ve/documentos/Demografia/CensodePoblacionyVivienda/pdf/nacional.pdf