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The 2019-20 Latin American protests correspond to a series of ongoing protests in Latin America that erupted since January 2019, and that is part of a larger context of international contestation movements since the end of 2018.

There are various reasons for the emergence of these waves of protests, but all were anti-governments protests aiming to pressuring leaders to respond to the common concerns of citizens without concrete political projects. Protests were triggered by a build-up of perceived antisocial government actions negatively impacting citizens, particularly financially, during a period of austerity following early-2000s prosperity across Latin America. The influence to protest at such large scales has been suggested to come from a widespread fear of economic and social crises caused by government actions, and dissatisfaction at political responses. This fear may be influenced by the crisis in Venezuela.

As a result, Venezuela kicked off uprisings in Haiti, followed by Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia mainly. Though developing separately throughout the year, by October these protests were occurring routinely across several Latin American countries, in some cases widespread and riotous, like in Chile. All the protests also relied heavily on the utilisation of social networks to generate greater mobilisation, spread information and denounce abuses.

The Guardian discussed different opinions on whether the wave of protests constituted a "Latin American spring". By November 2019, media outlets were using the term more widely. It is a wave of the greater Latin American Spring that has been causing unrest around the region since 2014.

Role of social media in the wave of protests:

Each of the protest movements that have shaken Latin America from 2019 onwards were different, but all had in common that they were popular uprisings without defined leaders or concrete political projects, relying on social networks to denounce, form, structure and spread the movements.

Since the Arab springs, various protest movements have appropriated new communication technologies, facilitating the circulation of information among a growing number of unorganized individuals. Social networks have thus become major actors in the emergence and sustainability of protest movements in recent years.

The most obvious aspect of the usefulness of social networks in the wave of protests is their ability to broaden mobilisation to certain categories of the population that are not usually politicised. Thanks to social media, individuals who have doubts about their commitment can be comforted in their position and have more incentive to take part in the mobilization. The widespread dissemination of hashtags and call for mobilisation contributes to a strong sense of national support. In Chile, and according to local authorities, 10,000 people gathered in the centre of the capital on 29 October, after an appeal launched on social networks. From November 2019 in Colombia, "cacerolazos" (pot concerts), recitals and neighbourhood assemblies multiplied thanks to messages circulating on social networks. This mobilisation capacity also contributes to overcome the free-rider effect. Indeed, every rational individual is tempted to take advantage of certain situations without having to pay the price. In such cases, citizens staying at home will be able to take advantage of the measures granted after demonstrations, as much as those who have demonstrated, without having the disadvantages (loss of a day's pay, participation in the strike, etc.)

Social networks have also provided an alternative to traditional media that have remained silent or corrupted by the government. As an example, The Financial Times reported that when a Chilean television journalist tried to interview protesters on their way to a meeting point in Santiago, a young girl pushed him away by shouting to the camera: "Turn off your television, the media is lying! Get your information on social networks!”. In Ecuador, the general media blackout was also exposed on Twitter through several hashtags such as #EcuadorSOS, #CercoMediatico or #paroenecuador. Some also said: "The revolution will not be televised. We must broadcast it as widely as possible and be the voice of the Ecuadorian people".

The strength of social networks in protest movements can also be explained by the possibility of sending and sharing videos and photos, powerful vectors of emotion and mobilization. In Colombia, for example, a few days after the demonstrations began, the death of an 18-year-old demonstrator who had been shot in the head by the police became one of the symbols of police repression. Several videos showing the young boy falling to the ground went viral and prompted many citizens to join the movements. In Chile, as protests against the government measure intensified, and just before a strong crackdown was carried out, President Pinera was seen eating a pizza in a wealthy area of the capital. This event quickly provoked a tidal wave of reactions on Twitter, where images of police brutality and the hashtags #RenunciaPinera (Pinera’s resignation) have swept. According to Margaret Tucker, this illustrates the effectiveness and speed with which social media disseminate "protest slang" shaping movements.

However, some observers object to the importance given to social networks in the emergence of protest movements in Latin America. Journalists and scholars underlined the insidious character of social media also, declaring that “protests that organise on social media can rise faster, but collapse just as quickly”. Social media are also accused of participating to the spread of misinformation and enabling to governmental manipulations. For others, social networks, far from being only democratic tools for purely positive purposes, have also contributed to the failure and extinction of movements over time. If they have helped to evacuate frustrations during the wave of demonstrations in Latin America, they do not seem to have contributed to the fluidity of social dialogue, nor to circumventing possible institutional blockages to finally revitalize democratic life according to a report on the year of unrest on the continent. On the contrary, social networks seem to have added to the political instability of these countries, contributing to the persistence of blockages and undermining the credibility of institutions. In Colombia, as in Chile and Ecuador, social networks have mainly contributed to highlighting the country's structural problems without providing credible alternative solutions.