New anti-corruption legislation seems to leave possible presidential misconduct off the table. 

It’s no “coincidence” that there are simultaneous judicial offensives against Presidents Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and Cristina Fernández in Argentina. 

Oncologist Tabaré Vázquez Rosas becomes Uruguay’s president for the second time, demonstrating the stable nature of his country’s democratic tradition, and the desire of its citizens for more center-left policies. 

On February 23, 1980 Attorney General Zamora Rivas, a leader of the leftwing of the Christian Democratic party, was assassinated in El Salvador’s dirty war.  His death had symbolic resonance.   

Ecuador’s popular cartoonist, Xavier Bonilla, known as “Bonil,” has once again come in for harassment by the authorities, who don’t like the “tone” of his satire and say that it has “gone beyond the limit imposed by law.” 

As Latin America’s commodity boom has slacked off over the last year, presidents in the region have watched their popularity decline. Despite the damage attributed to corruption scandals, presidents across the political spectrum have suffered growing unpopularity that seems to be driven by economic issues. 

Nicaragua’s proposed trans-oceanic canal could be “the scenario for a slightly implausible summer blockbuster movie” with darkly powerful business interests, environmental dangers, social upheavals and “and even global intrigue.” 

The Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (CICIG) has caused political polarization in the country since its creation, especially because powerful interests connected to the military governments of yore have convinced conservatives that it was the “creature of the leftists.”  Yet it is still needed.  

The prospects for justice and resolution of disputes in Mexico “are bleak.” The process is expensive, slow, inflexible, and open to manipulation. 

Although he was wrong about the inevitability of communism, Marx correctly predicted many of capitalism’s recurring ills.