After nearly two years of bitter deadlock, an elected constitutional assembly in Bolivia passed a draft of a new constitution last month—only to see it fiercely opposed by large sectors of the population. The controversy sparked riots and led Morales to call for a referendum on his own rule

In Ecuador, a similar assembly made up primarily of Correa’s allies effectively dissolved the National Congress. Critics cast the developments as the end of democracy, though judges reviewing the matter upheld the action.

And in Venezuela, voters last month dealt Chavez his first electoral defeat by narrowly refusing a set of constitutional changes that would have given him even more authority.

“Large-scale constitutional reforms are extremely popular with citizens,” said Jonathan Hartlyn, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina who has studied constitutional politics throughout Latin America. “They’re particularly popular in a context of perceived economic and social exclusion, and in places where political parties and politicians are both weak and extremely unpopular and are blamed for the crisis.”