Recent examples of this political reorientation abound. In November 2015, Argentina elected conservative Mauricio Macri as president, ending 12 years of Peronist rule . In August 2016, Brazil impeached President Dilma Rousseff , ending 13 years of Workers' Party rule. And in December 2014, Cuba began to normalize relations with the United States , transforming, albeit more slowly, the communist policies of the past half-century. Meanwhile, Venezuela, a populist bastion that was once the energy benefactor of several nearby states, is beset by economic crisis and political unrest . Upcoming elections elsewhere threaten to remove governments that were more tacitly bound by left-wing principles (not to mention reject what they considered U.S. interference in the region). Ecuador will hold its presidential election in 2017, one that the ruling Alianza Pais coalition may find difficult to win without long-serving President Rafael Correa.