Over the last few years Latin America has seen a slow but sure political turn towards the left, while the United States, the dominant power in the Americas and the world, has its most conservative administration in nearly a century. Presidential election results in 2006 seem to confirm the direction that Latin America is heading, which includes the search for alliances with other countries of the developing South and with Europe. Will Latin America move beyond its status as the United States' "backyard" and become a power in its own right? The ballot boxes may just answer that question.