Latin American Presidentialism

Following up on Joel´s post, there is a very interesting phenomenon in Latin American countries. The last Presidential election in Chile is an example of this. President Bachelet was very popular when the elections were held: according to some polls, 70% of the Chilean people thought very highly of her government. In spite of that, her Party - "the Coalition" - lost the Presidential elections in the second round. I find that very interesting. Of course, this can happen everywhere, but personalism is one of the main feautures of Latin American politics. Some scholars argue that personalism is heritage of the Spanish colonisation and so is concentration of power in a very strong Executive.