The conservative wave (Spanish: ola conservadora; Portuguese: onda conservadora), or blue tide (Spanish: marea azul; Portuguese: maré azul), or the turn to the right (Spanish: giro a la derecha; Portuguese: virada à direita) is a right-wing political phenomenon that occurred in the mid-2010s to the early 2020s across Latin America as a direct reaction to the pink tide. During the conservative wave, left-wing governments suffered their first major electoral losses in a decade.

In Argentina, Mauricio Macri (liberal-conservative, center-right) succeeded Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Peronist) in 2015. In Brazil, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, a socialist, resulted in her departure and the rise of Vice President Michel Temer to power in 2016, and later to far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro becoming President of Brazil. In Peru, the conservative economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski succeeded Ollanta Humala, a socialist and left-wing nationalist. In Chile, the conservative Sebastián Piñera succeeded Michelle Bachelet, a social democrat, in 2018 in the same transition that occurred in 2010. In Bolivia, the conservative Jeanine Áñez succeeded Evo Morales amid the 2019 Bolivian political crisis. In Ecuador, the centre-right conservative banker Guillermo Lasso succeeded the deeply unpopular Lenín Moreno, becoming the first right-wing President of Ecuador in 14 years.

Starting in the mid-2020s, right-wing candidates rebounded with a handful of victories, constituting a second conservative wave. In late 2023 and early 2024, right-wing libertarian Javier Milei won the 2023 Argentine presidential election, defeating Peronist Sergio Massa; centre-right businessman Daniel Noboa defeating leftist Luisa González in Ecuador; right-wing politician José Raúl Mulino defeated the incumbent center-left vice president José Gabriel Carrizo in the 2024 Panamanian general election. This trend continued into 2025, with conservative Rodrigo Paz elected President of Bolivia, defeating the ruling socialist MAS in Bolivia for the first time in decades; and the 2025 victory of José Antonio Kast in Chile, as well as that of Nasry Asfura in Honduras. Analysts expect this trend to continue into 2026, with the left-wing candidates seen as likely to lose to their right-wing challengers in the upcoming elections for that year. In 2026, conservative populist Laura Fernández Delgado was elected President of Costa Rica.

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the conservative wave began to decline following left-wing victories, starting with the 2018 Mexican general election and the 2020 Bolivian general election, and later the 2021 Peruvian general election, 2021 Chilean presidential election, 2021 Honduran general election, the 2022 Colombian presidential election, which resulted in the first left-wing president in the country's history, and the 2022 Brazilian general election, in which former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had his political rights restored, defeated Bolsonaro.

In Argentina, the election of Mauricio Macri of the centre-right in November 2015 as President of Argentina brought a right-wing government to power, although the populist movements of Peronism and Kirchnerism, which are tied to its leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's popularity, initially remained somewhat strong. In October 2017, Macri established a more firm hold on power when many candidates of his Cambiemos party enjoyed victories in the 2017 Argentine legislative election.

In the 2019 Argentine presidential election, Macri lost to the left-leaning Alberto Fernández, who was sworn into office in December 2019. However, right-wing libertarian Javier Milei won the 2023 Argentine presidential election, defeating Peronist Sergio Massa.

In Brazil, a conservative wave began roughly around the time Dilma Rousseff won the 2014 Brazilian presidential election in a tight election, kicking off the fourth term of the Workers' Party in the highest position of government. According to a political analyst at the Inter-Union Department of Parliamentary Advice, Antônio Augusto de Queiroz, the National Congress of Brazil elected in 2014 may be considered the most conservative since the re-democratization movement, citing an increase in the number of parliamentarians linked to more conservative segments, such as ruralists, the military of Brazil, police of Brazil, and religious conservatives. The subsequent economic crisis of 2015 and investigations of corruption scandals led to a right-wing movement that sought to rescue ideas from economic liberalism and conservatism in opposition to left-wing politics. At the same time, young liberals such as those that make up the Free Brazil Movement emerged among many others. For José Manoel Montanha da Silveira Soares, within a single real generation there may be several generations that he called "differentiated and antagonistic". For him, it is not the common birth date that marks a generation, though it matters, but rather the historical moment in which they live in common. In this case, the historical moment was the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. They can be called the "post-Dilma generation".

Centrist interim President Michel Temer took office following the impeachment of Rousseff. Temer held 3% approval ratings in October 2017, facing a corruption scandal after accusations for obstructing justice and racketeering were placed against him. He managed to avoid trial thanks to the support of the right-wing parties in the National Congress. On the other hand, President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, who was acknowledged as one of the key figures behind Rousseff's destitution and member of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement, was himself removed from office after facing embezzlement charges.