MONTEVIDEO: The election of a left-wing leader in Bolivia is a new Latin American warning to the United States, which is increasingly worried about the spread of potentially hostile governments in the region.

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president-elect, has already declared himself an admirer of Cuba’s communist leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s outspoken leftist President Hugo Chavez, who consolidated his power in legislative elections this month.

Argentina’s left-of-centre president Nestor Kirchner has also reinforced his influence in legislative elections, while Chile is on course to getting its first socialist woman president, Michelle Bachelet.

And more left wingers could follow in 2006.

Peru could also get a left wing woman president, Lourdes Flores, in April.

Mexico is to hold an election in July and a left winger is favourite, and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former fiery trades union leader, will fight for re-election in October.

Costa Rica will hold an election in February, Peru in April, Colombia in May and Nicaragua in November. Many of them could see left of centre leaders voted into office.

Ecuador, which is in the midst of a political crisis following the departure of its president last April, may still join this list.

Morales has already vowed to rein in US influence in his impoverished country, as well as increase state control of the natural gas and oil industry.

Morales has said he is willing to speak to US officials. “Dialogue is always open, but we need diplomatic relations, not submission or subordination,” he said.

Following the 1990s when neo-liberal development models championed by the International Monetry Fund ruled the day, South America has entered a new phase.

A recent Summit of the Americas in Argentina created obstacles for a US-backed proposal for a free-trade zone. An alliance of Mercosur countries that include Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, plus Venezuela fought the idea.

Meanwhile, Mexico that has been the main Latin American champion of the free-trade zone that should extend from Alaska to Cape Horn, is about to swing to the left.

Former Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who represent the Party of the Democratic Revolution, has been leading polls for months, despite populist programs put forward by the conservative National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for seven decades.

But the Latin American left is divided into factions displaying varying degrees of radicalism. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela do not always agree and the socialist advance has some cracks.

Brazil’s Lula, a symbol of moderate progressivism, is threatened by corruption scandals that are dogging his Workers’ Party. His success against the mayor of Sao Paulo, Social Democrat Jose Serra, is less than certain.

And Colombia’s conservative president Alvaro Uribe is expected to win a second term in office to tackle the country’s leftist guerillas and paramilitary groups.

Venezuela’s Chavez is expected to use his stronger grip on power after the legislative elections — largely boycotted by the opposition — as a base for reelection in 2006.

That could influence Nicaragua, where the Sandanistas of one-time Marxist leader Daniel Ortega are challenging to make a democratic return.—AFP