My (subjective) ranking, trying to take into consideration the improvements or regressions compared to previous presidents in various areas that I personally consider very important (human rights, freedom of the press, term limitations, fight against corruption, reduction in state and non-state violence, decrease of political instability, sound economic management, environment protection and reduction of social inequalities). Not a specialist of every South American countries so I may miss some things.
1/
Lenín Moreno. Not a surprising choice coming from me, but I truly consider him as a big improvement over Correa as, when he took office, Ecuador was dangerously heading toward an authoritarian regime. Over one year after his inauguration, limitations on press freedom have been largely suppressed (the Orwellian Supercom is now thankfully history), relations with civil society organizations and opposition parties have generally moved from hysterical confrontation to open dialogue and term limitations for president have been restored. Some measures have also been taken to address the corruption problem and environment protection is now better taken into account; still a lot of progresses have to be made in these areas. Can’t say also that I disagree with the recent diplomatic reorientation (criticism of Maduro regime, denunciation of state violence in Nicaragua).
Moreno is a very atypical political figure, being a humble guy with a lot of self-deprecatory humor who overcomes his physical handicap to become president of his country. The author of several books of jokes and the advocate of laughter therapy, he is also the architect of policies that have improved the condition of disabled people in Ecuador; so, he’s probably one the world leaders with the most likeable personality.
However, the alliance with corrupt politicians (sadly probably necessary to run the country) is a major impediment in an efficient fight against corruption, the economy remains quite bad (largely the results of Correa’s economic choices and of natural disasters though), the Chinese influence over the country is too high and the probable manipulation of justice to accelerate the political elimination of Correa isn’t something to be particularly proud of. More generally, while Moreno is in my opinion well-intentioned, history will judge him over his ability to prevent Ecuador from slipping once again into political instability. In that regard, the split in the AP and the development of FARC dissidents and drug trafficking on the northern border are very worrying and I’m not sure the response of Moreno’s government to address the later issue has been adequate.
2/
Tabaré Vásquez. Don’t know much about Uruguay but seems a decent president even if not as good and likeable than Pepe Mújica. Surely the best leader by European standards but I have been less indulgent than toward Moreno because he inherited a well-entrenched democracy with stable institutions and no major economic or social problems. The recent increase in criminality is however rather concerning and suggests not everything is fine in Uruguay.
And, that’s all for the good guys.
3/
Sebastián Piñera. Like Vásquez, he inherited a now solidly established and functioning democratic state with a quite robust economy. To my great shame, don’t know too much about him except that he isn’t a Pinochet fanatical worshiper which is a good point. Overall, doesn’t seem too bad for a conservative leader and for a businessman-turned-politician as this category of people are generally truly awful in South America. Still, his first administration was ‘meh’ to bad so I haven’t high expectations from his second tenure of office.
4/
Martín Vizcarra. For now, I’m quite indulgent with him because he inherited a truly horrible situation: economic slowdown, disastrous effects of the El Niño phenomenon, rising criminality, resurgence of the Shining Path and spreading of the FARC dissidents in northern Peru, widespread corruption and, even more, he took office in the middle of the biggest political crisis in the country since the return of democracy. Seems to have good intentions with some interesting policies (fight against corruption which is pretty obvious by this point, necessary reform of the justice, measures against feminicide), but without support in Congress and low democratic legitimacy he will have hard time to implement them. Has been involved in a corruption scandal but still seems less corrupt and better than your average Peruvian politician (but being better than Alan García, Ollanta Humala or the Fujimoris is far from being an insurmountable feat). That could however change in case of new revelations by IDL Reporteros. So, at best a placeholder president with good intentions but unable to get anyting passed. Otherwise, yet another Peruvian president who will land in jail for corruption.
5/
Mauricio Macri. Again not familiar with Argentine politics and I should possibly rank him a bit higher. However, after having reading what Velasco wrote about him, doesn’t sound like a particularly good president. If anything, calling the IMF to the rescue is probably not the best sign the economy of a country is well managed. Of course, he's an improvement over the hilariously bad Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, but the prospect of a victory of the Peronists in the next election (as suggested by most recent polls) is quite revealing about the failures of Macri's policies.
Now digging deeper into horribleness:
6/
Evo Morales. Well, yeah, probably the most effective leader of the bunch who bring political stability to Bolivia after decades of chaos and rule by cartoonishly evil dictators (including a Nazi cocaine smuggler), greatly increased social programs and ‘empowered’ the indigenous majority. However his unwillingness to relinquish power and his inability to designate a successor are very worrying: when he will left office, without a prepared transition Bolivia could, once again, being plunged into instability. This is especially concerning as the democratic institutions, which were already very weak at the time of Morales’ inauguration, are in a truly bad shape and, iirc, army has a growing influence in the country. Also his environmental policies are pretty bad, his unconditional support for Maduro despicable and his record in the fight against corruption is at best unimpressive. In addition, I’m unconvinced that legalization of labor for children over 10 was a good thing and the best solution to improve the plight of working children. The sad thing is that his opponents are probably even worse.
7/
Iván Duque. I’m possibly a center-left hack but I truly don’t expect any improvement for Colombia from this guy who is the puppet of the awful Uribe and is supported by arch-corrupt politicians, paramilitary enablers and mentally deranged reactionaries. His economic policies sound terrible and will not address the striking problem of inequality. In education and social areas, I guess that the next Colombian administration will only care about war against ‘gender ideology’ while, concerning environment issues, priority will be given to big mining companies over concerns by local populations. The few good policies initiated by Santos (peace process, land reform) will be hampered if not stalled. Don’t expect neither any improvement in the fight against corruption nor a decline of violence, especially not violence against peaceful civil society members. Hope the quite robust judicial system (which prevented Uribe from running for a third term in office) will not be weaken too much by a Duque administration.
8/
Michel Temer. An arch-corrupt opportunist who weaken the democratic institutions by his thirst for power. Granted, the administration of Dilma Rousseff was a trainwreck but having get rid of her by political maneuvers and an impeachment on a technicality by a Congress populated by massively corrupt and non-ideological politicians is a dangerous precedent that could led the country to high levels of political instability (see Ecuador in the 1990s and early 2000s).
As the vice president of Dilma during five years and as the leader of a party that had been part of every single Brazilian government since the 1990s, Temer could be considered as co-responsible of the Dilma administration failures and was clearly not the right person to clean the Augean stables. He proves to be the worst Brazilian president since at least Collor de Mello, except for a (slight) improvement of the economy, his administration has been a disaster and an orgy of corruption with policies that reverse the attempts of previous governments to decrease the social inequalities and accelerate the environmental degradation in the country. However, the most worrying things are the rising influence of military on the political stage (with rumors of military coup and delegation of full control of security to the army in Rio de Janeiro) and the increase in extrajudicial killings and murders of social activists. The fact that a dictatorship apologist could be elected president in next October is revealing of the degree of decay of the Brazilian democracy.
By this point, we’re not longer talking about political leaders but rather about leaders of criminal organizations.
9/
Mario Abdo Benítez. The leader of the Colorado Party, a crime syndicate masquerading as a political party (not that its rival, the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, is any better), and an apologist of the bloody dictator who turned Paraguay into a trafficking hub and a hospice for old German Nazi dignitaries. Despite the fact that the situation in Paraguay is absolutely terrible (the country is a haven for assorted smugglers and counterfeiters, its whole political class is insanely corrupt, environment and land reform activists are actively repressed and so are unionists, elections are plagued by fraud and vote-buying, northwest part of the country is under attack by a bloody far-left guerrilla), I don’t see how it could improved, even a little bit, under a guy such as Abdo Benítez. Well maybe the level of corruption could slightly lowered as he’s not as corrupt than Horacio Cartes, but being less corrupt than Cartes – compared by a prominent leader of the Colorado Party to Al Capone – is hardly an incredible feat.
10/
Dési Bouterse. Yep, you forgot about this one, despite the fact it’s pretty uncommon to have a country leader having been previously wanted by Interpol for drug trafficking. I know Bouterse has implemented some social programs and that he’s better now as an elected political leader rather than the military dictator he previously was but that really doesn’t make up for his huge responsibility into having turn Suriname into an even more sh**t-hole place, for the numerous human rights violations he committed in the 1980s, for the insane levels of corruption of his administration nor his active involvement in drug trafficking. The opposition is very, very bad and ethnic-based (Hindu) but still way preferable to this dictator-turn-drug lord. What could I add about this nice guy. Oh yes, the incredible scandal in which his son was involved several years ago and about which I wrote the following:
11/
Nicolás Maduro. Will not elaborate too much about the case of Maduro as everybody here seems to be unanimous about the fact he is the worst president in South America. The situation which was already horrible under Chávez has worsened; people are even more starving to death, criminality has continued to skyrocketed, the army has increased its grip over power and is actively involved in drug trafficking and the government no longer dares to hold even remotely free and fair elections.
Not ranked:
David A. Granger as I know nothing about Guyana politics. However: 1/ being a former military officer 2/ being the president of a country where homosexuality is prohibited and 3/ being the leader of the party which welcomed Jim Jones in Guyana doesn’t sound particularly encouraging.
Poll
