On the same day that Vladimir Putin won his fifth re-election, new protests began in Cuba. By the mid-1990s, Latin America had completed its process of transition to democracy.
In the early 2000s, the alliance between Castro and Chávez faded the democratic optimism that had reigned at the beginning of the transition. Under the umbrella of Castroism, Venezuela's democracy, which had been a model on the continent, became a façade for the consolidation of a new form of authoritarianism.