Latin American voters will soon cast ballots in national elections in several countries. Some argue that the region is undergoing a uniform political shift to the left, that mistrust of neo-liberal economics and US foreign policy has united these states in a populist wave of reaction against both, and that this trend will bind these states to countries outside the region, undermining US interests. This generalisation does not withstand country-specific scrutiny. Analysis of the unique political circumstances in each of these states reveals that the populist, anti-American trend is hardly uniform, and that the political and economic ties that bind Latin America and the United States are not so easily undone.