In the next several months, while U.S. voters focus on their own upcoming elections, residents of seven Latin American countries, including two of the most populous—Argentina and Mexico—also will choose new leaders. The results are worth watching because there’s a chance that we’ll see a retreat from the anti-Americanism that has dominated the region’s politics in recent years.

The elections begin next week with the October 15 presidential runoff in Ecuador, where Daniel Noboa, a young businessman, is expected to defeat Luisa González, a stooge of former president Rafael Correa, the corrupt autocrat who fled to Belgium to avoid a prison sentence and subsequently helped sabotage the government of outgoing president Guillermo Lasso.