MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - The left made more inroads into Latin America in four elections this weekend as crisis-weary voters tired of decades of U.S-backed market reforms warmed to pragmatic platforms of economic growth with better distribution of wealth.

Tiny Uruguay became the latest South American nation to elect a leftist leader in a historic shift while the left notched up victories in local elections that could set the tone for future presidential votes in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.

Tabare Vazquez, the presidential candidate of the Frente Amplio coalition (Broad Front) party, acknowledges supporters from the balcony of his party's headquarters in Montevideo, October 31, 2004. Vazquez, a 64-old-year old physician, was poised to became Uruguay's first leftist president after campaigning for social change and justice in a nation crippled by a recent economic crisis. (Andres Stapff/Reuters)

Tabare Vazquez, who will be Uruguay's first leftist leader, won the presidency in his third attempt after toning down some earlier fiery left-wing proposals and choosing Danilo Astori, well-regarded in Wall Street, as economy minister.

Uruguay joins the dominant club of South American nations -- Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela -- governed by leftists or center-leftists who are putting up trade and diplomatic challenges to the United States in its traditional "backyard."

In the last decade, free market policies opening up the countries to foreign investment often ended in economic disaster, particularly in Argentina and Uruguay, once rich farming nations where millions now do not have enough to eat.

But many of these nations, all growing at a healthy clip these days, cannot afford to abandon fiscal austerity and lose investor confidence. Their debt burdens are too big and their economies depend heavily on foreign investment.

Vazquez says Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is his main inspiration. Analysts say Lula's leftist pragmatism -- combining fiscally austere policies with efforts to improve social welfare -- is winning adepts around the region.

"South America's democracies are maturing and becoming more similar," political analyst David Fleischer at the University of Brasilia said. "It means South Americans might have a more unified position in areas like trade talks with the United States."

BRAZIL, CHILE EYE PRESIDENTIAL VOTES

Two years after Lula swept to power, his Workers Party lost three big cities in municipal elections on Sunday, including the financial and industrial hub Sao Paulo. But setbacks for the PT were blamed on local issues rather than on Lula.

Workers Party candidates did well overall in the elections for nearly 5,600 municipalities, expanding the party's presence beyond its traditional strongholds two years before the 2006 presidential election.

Chile also had a litmus test for its 2005 presidential race with Sunday's mayoral elections. President Ricardo Lagos' center-left coalition, which has ruled Chile for 15 years, took 45 percent of votes and the right-wing opposition got 39 percent.

Political scientists said the victory, although it was by a narrower margin than the last three mayoral races, was good news for the ruling coalition.

"The president, who seemed at the point of becoming a lame duck, is flying, flying very high," said Patricio Navia, a political scientist with New York University.

In Venezuela, preliminary results showed candidates loyal to leftist President Hugo Chavez sweeping at least 18 of 23 state governorships and winning the influential Caracas mayor's post.

Chavez, a firebrand populist first elected in 1998, has vowed to strengthen his social reforms after ousting opposition governors and mayors whom he accuses of backing a brief 2002 coup against him.

It was a crushing defeat for an opposition demoralized by the president's victory in an August referendum.

"The reality for at least the next two years is that President Chavez is gaining more political power," said Jose Cerritelli, an analyst with Bear Stearns in New York.

Encouraged by his win and others for the left in the region, Chavez proclaimed on Monday "the revolution is here to stay," and that "Latin America's great people are rising up."

Reporting by Andrew Hay in Brasilia, Fiona Ortiz in Santiago and Pascal Fletcher in Caracas

© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd

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