Is a new progressive axis born in Latin America?

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Editor's Note: Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of more than seven books and contributor to publications on international issues. He currently serves as director of NODAL, a portal dedicated exclusively to the news of Latin America and the Caribbean. He collaborated with different national media such as Clarín, El Cronista, La Nación, Página / 12, Profile and for magazines such as News, Somos, Le Monde Diplomatique and Panorama. Throughout his career, Brieger won important awards for his informative work on Argentine radio and television.

(CNN Spanish) - The recent trip to Mexico by President-elect of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, after the overwhelming first-round win over Mauricio Macri, is very relevant for Latin America and the Caribbean. In the Argentine tradition who assumed the presidency made his first trip abroad to Brazil. In this case, just six days after the elections Fernández decided to visit Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The president of Mexico received him with open arms making it clear that today there is a progressive political affinity as these two countries never had before, which allows us to see a new regional axis from north to south.

In their public statements both López Obrador and Fernández are very critical of the International Monetary Fund and the neoliberal policies that both consider have failed in their respective countries. They also agree on the need to relaunch the regional integration mechanisms abandoned by previous governments.

After the triumph of Macri in 2015 and the destitution of Dilma Rousseff in 2016, those who support a conservative and liberal vision sentenced that there would be no more progressive governments in decades. The followers of Macri - with the typical pride of those who enjoy the honeys of a triumph - popularized the slogan "they never come back". They were wrong. Worse, for history it will be recorded that Macri is one of the few Latin American presidents who did not get reelected and lost by eight points in the first round, mainly due to his failure in the economy.

López Obrador said he was not interested in foreign policy and did not even have a passport. However, in less than a year of government it has made decisions of great international relevance. On the one hand, Mexico will assume in 2020 the presidency of CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a regional integration body without the United States, to give it a new Latin American boost. On the other hand, before the arrests in Ecuador of leaders similar to former President Rafael Correa, he decided to host several people in his embassy in Quito, including the former president of the National Assembly, Gabriela Rivanedeira. While it is true that Mexico has a great tradition of providing refuge to persecuted people, it seems that they are in Ecuador, it is no less true that - in this regional context - it is a political gesture to give asylum to opponents to President Lenin Moreno , as well as receiving Alberto Fernández before assuming the presidency.

It is not the first time that Mexico and Argentina seek to strengthen their ties directly. They already did it in the twenties and thirties of the last century. That these two powers try it can be very significant for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Alberto FernándezGroup of Puebla