Marginal at first, news reports and political analysts have pointed the important weight that the Evangelical Christian community has and its impact in electoral politics in Latin America, even helping in the electoral victories of conservative candidates.
Evangelical political parties are a particular type of political parties in Latin America generally linked or known to advocate for the interests of the Evangelical Christian community.
They are normally associated with certain stances like cultural conservatism, strong opposition to same-sex marriage and LGBT rights, legalization of abortion, drug liberalization and marijuana legalization, what they refer as "gender ideology" or identity politics, gun control and globalism. Although exceptions exist, they tend to be located on the right of the spectrum due to the Prosperity Theology associated to them, whilst supporting such things as death penalty, "hard hand" on crime, corporal punishment for minors and harder laws for juvenile delinquents.
History
Protestant missionary groups mainly from the Charismatic Movement originated in the Deep South of the United States were introduced deliberately as a strategy from Washington particularly during Republican administrations as a way to reduce the influence of left-leaning Catholic movements like Liberation theology (which was popular among many far-left political parties and guerrillas) and the more moderate Christian socialist and Christian Democratic parties. Guatemalan archbishop Próspero Penados also blamed the US for encouraging and sponsor Evangelicalism in Guatemala for, according to him, more political than religious reasons arguing that: "The diffusion of Protestantism in Guatemala is more part of an economic and political strategy" to oppose the Catholic social justice doctrine". Meanwhile some conservative Catholics have blamed the widespread prevalence of liberation theology among the clergy in Latin America for the exodus of believers to Evangelical Protestantism and have criticized the proponents of liberation theology for a lack of focus on Jesus Christ in favor of left wing social doctrine.
In recent decades, the Catholic Church has suffered a drain of followers, some of whom became irreligious, agnostics or atheists. Some also went to other alternative religions like Buddhism, Islam and new religious movements; but a large segment of former Catholics, particularly those of more humble origins and lower classes, went into the Evangelical Churches, with neo-Pentecostal and Charismatic movements proven popular amongst the converts. Pentecostalism also became popular among the lower income classes and the most abandoned sectors of society specially those of very poor and peripheral areas who see the Churches' ideas of economic growth through faith as an opportunity for social mobility. In any case, the growth of Evangelicals was quickly followed by their newly discovered political and electoral weight, with new forms of political activism and even the creation of specific political parties connected to their communities. Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was one of the first Evangelical Christians in attain power in Latin America's history.
Some examples of these movements include the support from the Evangelical Christian community to Jimmy Morales (himself an Evangelical) in Guatemala, Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras, Mauricio Macri in Argentina, Sebastián Piñera in Chile The Evangelical opposition in the Colombian peace agreement referendum is considered for many pivotal in its rejection, as was the Evangelical parties' support of the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Countries with notorious conservative right-wing candidates supported by Evangelicals include Venezuela where pastor Javier Bertucci was the third-most voted nominee, Costa Rica where preacher and gospel singer Fabricio Alvarado went into the electoral run-off and Brazil where Evangelical Christians were pivotal in the triumph of Jair Bolsonaro.
However, in some countries the alliance was with the left. The Authentic Renewal Organization is a Venezuelan Evangelical political party and member of the official Great Patriotic Pole of President Nicolás Maduro. Daniel Ortega was also supported by Evangelical pastors in Nicaragua and his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo has links with Evangelical Churchers. The Social Encounter Party in Mexico is also unofficially linked to the Mexican Evangelical community (as the Mexican Constitution forbids the existence of confessional parties) and is a member of the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition that endorsed leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a move that brought out criticism as it was a coalition with two left-wing parties.