Evo Morales, Bolivia’s populist president, dedicated his landslide re-election victory on Sunday night to the late Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chávez. Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist policies and anti-American bombast has found strong resonance in much of the continent, most significantly in Ecuador and Bolivia.  Most Latin American nations hold regular, credible elections, although the strength of democratic values in the region has been undermined in past years by coups and electoral irregularities. But perhaps the most disquieting trend is that protégés of Mr. Chávez seem inclined to emulate his reluctance to cede power.  If Mr. Morales, who was first elected in 2006, serves out his term and leaves office in 2020, he will be the country’s longest-serving president. With strong popular support and allies in Congress, he could well try to stay in power even longer by amending the constitution or calling for a referendum. (He recently said in an interview that he was not inclined to stay beyond 2020, but his remarks were far from categorical.)  In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa is seeking legislative action that would allow all elected officials to run for an indefinite number of terms. Diplomats and analysts say some Central American leaders are likely to follow suit.  Colombia managed to resist this trend near the end of former President Álvaro Uribe’s second term in office in 2010. Having amended the Constitution once in 2006 to secure a second term, Mr. Uribe’s supporters in Congress tried to keep him in office for a third. They were stopped by a sound ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court.  It is easy to see why many Bolivians would want to see Mr. Morales, the country’s first president with indigenous roots, remain at the helm. During his tenure, the economy of the country, one of the least developed in the hemisphere, grew at a healthy rate, the level of inequality shrank and the number of people living in poverty dropped significantly. He has also given the Andean nation, with its history of political turmoil, a long stretch of relative stability.  But the pattern of prolonged terms in power is unhealthy for the region. It is troubling that the stronger democracies in Latin America seem happy to condone it. To varying degrees, Latin America’s entrenched rulers have weakened institutions and asserted greater control over the press. Staying in office for several terms enables leaders to appoint allies to electoral and judicial bodies and to build patronage networks that turn out the vote.  The starkest, and most alarming, example is President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Mr. Chávez’s handpicked successor, who has turned his country into an autocratic, despotic state.  This regional dynamic has been dismal for Washington’s influence in the region. In Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, the new generation of caudillos have staked out anti-American policies and limited the scope of engagement on development, military cooperation and drug enforcement efforts. This has damaged the prospects for trade and security cooperation.  Mr. Morales could keep Bolivia on a positive trajectory by continuing to invest in social welfare programs and infrastructure. His legacy would be stronger if he, or lawmakers, decided that this new term would be his last.  A version of this editorial appears in print on October 17, 2014, on page A30 of the New York edition with the headline: South America’s New Caudillos . Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
The willingness of leaders to change the rules in order to stay in office is a threat to the region’s democratic values.