On February 6, 2022, Costa Rica voted to choose a new president from among a confusing field of 25 candidates without any strong favorites. Two somewhat flawed contenders emerged, former President José María Figueres of the Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN), and former Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves, of the Progreso Social Democrático party (PSD). They will

On January 27, 2022, Xiomara Castro took the oath of office as the first woman president of Honduras in a ceremony at Tegucigalpa’s National Stadium. Castro, wife of deposed former President Manuel Zelaya, said that “starting today, the people rule in Honduras.” The left-leaning leader of the Libertad y Refundación Party noted in a Twitter

Across Latin America, political observers are watching the rise of left-leaning coalitions in Brazil and Colombia, two countries preparing for presidential elections in 2022 with extremely unpopular rightwing incumbents whose popularity numbers have cratered. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro seems destined to lose to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the center-left Partido dos

In early 2022, concerns over unemployment and COVID-19, as well as anxieties about democracy, maintained a death grip on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s popularity, new polls indicated. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remained in strong position to win 2022’s presidential election. As a result, Bolsonaro oscillated between bravado and panic, while offering ever

The triumph of Gabriel Boric on December 19, 2021, in Chile’s presidential election has resonated on the Latin American left. Coming after the narrow electoral success of President Pedro Castillo in Peru, and the decisive victory of Xiomara Castro de Zelaya as president of Honduras, as well as giving momentum to the surging candidacies of

On December 19, 2021, Gabriel Boric, a left-wing legislator and former student activist who gained notoriety during anti-government protests, won the runoff election for president in Chile. With over 99% of the vote counted, Boric won 56% percent, defeating his extreme-right opponent, José Antonio Kast (a fundamentalist Catholic and son of a German officer who

In late November 2021, key elections were held in three Latin American countries. On November 19, 2021, Chile and Venezuela voted in presidential primaries and regional elections, respectively. On November 25, 2021, Honduras voted in a tense and historic presidential election. The Chileans faced a dramatic choice between political extremes, while Venezuelans largely checked out

On November 14, 2021, Argentina held legislative elections that saw the power of the ruling Peronista coalition, the Frente de Todos (FdT), much eroded. This seemed likely after the primary elections on September 12, which heralded the reemergence of the opposition coalition, Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri. Macri had lost

On November 7, 2021, Nicaragua held predictably uneventful elections in which President Daniel Ortega easily won reelection. The placid nature of the contest, arising from the fact that Ortega had jailed or driven into exile every likely opponent, belied the international condemnation of the exercise. He thus was able to secure his fourth consecutive term

In late October through early November 2021, the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim A.A. Khan, made a ten-day pass through Latin America, “listening and learning,” and finished up with three days in Venezuela. The ICC, based in The Hague, opened a preliminary investigation in 2018 into alleged human rights abuses by