In Latin America, full of socialist revolutionary events influenced by the Cuban Revolution, guerrilla warfare, and numerous coups d’état, Christian democratic forces in the twentieth century were distinguished by revolutionary and even socialist rhetoric.
Christian democratic parties in this region take a more radical position on agrarian reform, nationalization of property, struggle for the expansion of the state’s social policy and raising the level of education of the population. The programs of the Christian parties in this region are heavily influenced by the “theology of liberation” and the ideas of left-wing populism.
This was also facilitated by the poor results of reforms by Latin American Christian democratic governments, which often emphasized their respect for Christian morality but did little to reduce the influence of local capitalist oligarchies.
For Latin American Christian democrats, the positions of Christian socialism are quite close, while European Christian democrats have basically abandoned the concept of finding a middle “third way” (between capitalism and socialism). Latin American Christian Democrats were greatly influenced by the ideas of liberation theology, which was a synthesis of socialist and biblical postulates for the sake of social justice. One of the symbols of liberation theology was the image of Jesus Christ with a Kalashnikov rifle, a weapon that Moscow brought to the poor and long-suffering region in large quantities. Guided by the slogans of the rebellious church, many Christians and priests supported social change, participated in the guerrilla movement, formed left-wing Christian democratic groups, and radicalized Christian trade unions.
Against the backdrop of total poverty, misery, and corruption of local governments, societies were rooted in the belief that human liberation begins with the development of economic infrastructure, the creation of new jobs, and social stability. Liberation theology appealed to the figure of Jesus Christ as a fighter for the rights of the oppressed. A popular biblical story of liberation theology was the Book of Exodus, which creates an analogy from the story of the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and extrapolates the need for social liberation to the present. However, the combination of communist leftism and Christianity contradicted the tenets of the Church, which soon condemned and criticized liberation theology. Although the latter managed to leave a certain “socialist imprint” among Latin American Christian democrats.
However, in the twenty-first century, leftist influence in the Latin American Christian democratic movement has been significantly marginalized, and forces that use leftist guidelines occupy very minor positions. This was facilitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which supported socialist movements in the region, and the socio-economic failures of socialist governments in Cuba and Venezuela, which, having put socialist slogans into practice, plunged their people into the abyss of poverty and misery. At the same time, Christian democrats in Europe have evolved toward conservatism. As a result, today there is a rather definite ideological difference between Latin American and European Christian democracy.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk