After barely five months in office, President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador has already suffered serious political turbulence, especially during October of 2021, when a series of challenges appeared simultaneously. A spike in the homicide rate, ham-handed handling of a jump in fuel prices, and his embarrassing appearance in the Pandora Papers scandal (which jumpstarted congressional

On October 18, 2021, protesters in Chile marked the October 2019 social upheaval that generated the current effort to replace the constitution foisted on Chile during the military dictatorship dominated by Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. Thousands of people commemorated the date, known as “18-O,” just as members of the Constituent Convention started drafting

The so-called “Pandora Papers” investigation, a combined effort of over 600 journalists from media outlets including The Washington Post, the BBC, and The Guardian was built on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world. At least 35 current and former political leaders were caught up in the

On October 2, 2021, Brazilians went into the streets of many cities nationwide demanding the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro. Thousands of people protested in 251 cities all across Brazil. The marches were sponsored by labor unions, student organizations, NGOs, and center-left parties, but they were also joined by members of the anti-Bolsonaro Brazilian right.

In late September 2021, Colombia and Mexico marked grim milestones. Colombia counted five bloody years since the signing of peace accords between the Colombian government and the demobilized FARC guerrillas. Mexico counted seven years since the tragic night in Iguala, Guerrero, when 43 students from the Escuela Rural Normal “Raúl Isidro Burgos” de Ayotzinapa, known

On September 18, 2021, the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, or CELAC, held its VI Summit, the first in four years. The meeting took place in Mexico shortly after the commemoration of the 211th anniversary of Mexican Independence. Mexico under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) has been one of the strongest

On September 12, 2021, Argentina’s ruling Frente de Todos (FdeT) coalition suffered a heavy defeat in the PASO (Primarias, Abiertas, Simultáneas y Obligatorias) primary elections at the hands of the opposition Juntos por el Cambio alliance (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri. In the run-up to the contest, observers predicted that President Alberto Fernández had

In the days before September 7, 2021, Brazil’s Independence Day, President Jair Bolsonaro made increasingly provocative and menacing statements about his nation’s Supreme Court (and other institutions of democratic government), obviously to rally his base and demonstrate that he has the backing of large numbers of voters. He called on his followers to flood the

On August 27, 2021, the government of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and Prime Minister Guido Bellido survived a vote of confidence motion in the national single-chamber legislature which is currently controlled by the right-wing opposition. Castillo, Bellido, and the cabinet got 73 votes in favor and 50 against, with no abstentions. Castillo needed 63 to

In mid-August 2021, representatives of the fractured Venezuelan opposition met with officials of the beleaguered government of Nicolás Maduro for yet another round of “dialogue” focused on finding a solution to Venezuela’s interlocking social, economic, and political crises. Earlier meetings took place in recent years in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and Norway, and this