The article deals with the semantics of the term “populism” and its re-lexicalization via changing the meaning from neutral to negative. The author gives examples of the third-wave American populist leaders’ speeches, namely those made by Ugo Chaves, Nicolas Maduro, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega, and reveals linguistic means of populism, as well as discursive strategies: proliferation (lexical loading) of key concepts, such as “pueblo”, “nación”, “patria” (“people”, “nation”, “motherland”), constructing discursive “I” in a pattern “I am my people”, the use of discursive strategies of polarization that helps political leaders delegitimize the opponent and construct the para-reality to legalize and symbolize self-power. The populist discourse is marked semantically by key words pueblo, nación, patria, special contextual coloring is designed with set expressions like la voz del pueblo (voice of the people), by forming occasional derivatives that break language norms, by actualizing oppositions “friend - enemy”, “acquaintance – stranger”, “people – outsider”, by applying to slogans and precedent phenomena. The participation of precedent phenomena in discursive strategies of populism is highlighted in the choice of precedent names (i.e. Simón Bolívar, Augusto César Sandino, Rubén Darío), it is directed at affiliating modern political leaders with prominent leader of the past, thus pointing to national values and providing legitemisy of the politicains in power.