Issue Jan 31-Feb 06 2024: On February 4, 2024, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele went on social media and declared himself reelected “with more than 85% of the votes” even before the official election results were released. Bukele, at 42 years of age, was the first head of state to run for re-election since the

Issue Jan 24-30 2024: On January 26, 2024, the Venezuelan Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (TSJ), to no one’s great surprise, upheld a 15-year ban on María Corina Machado from holding public office and also confirmed the ineligibility of a possible alternative opposition candidate, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles. The TSJ is widely seen as controlled

Issue Jan 17-23 2024: On January 20, 2024, Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba died in her apartment in her hometown of Medellín from an apparent heart attack. She was 68 years old. Córdoba had recently been hospitalized in 2023. The grandniece of a prominent Afro-Colombian politician, she had a long career as an activist and politician

Issue Jan 10-16 2024: A crisis exploded in Ecuador after José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as “Fito,” escaped from prison on January 8, 2024. Macías, the leader the country’s largest drug gang, Los Choneros, had carried on control of his criminal empire for 12 years from his jail cell in the port city of Guayaquil.

Issue Jan 01-09 2024: On January 8, 2024, Brazilians marked one year since the storming of their Congress and other government buildings by supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, one week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office for a historic third term. The rioters looted and vandalized the iconic structures, with clear

Issue Dec 01-31 2023: On Sunday, December 10, 2023, Javier Milei took office as president of Argentina. He claimed that he had inherited the nastiest situation ever bestowed on an Argentine president. He told Argentines that there is “no money,” and that they should expect lots of pain to rectify the horrible situation caused by

Issue Nov 15-30 2023: On November 19, 2023, Argentines voted in a run-off election for president between the Peronista Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the flamboyant Javier Milei, candidate of Libertad Avanza, a newly formed “Libertarian” party. The contest took place in an atmosphere of intense agitation over Argentina’s high rate of inflation. What

Issue Nov 08-14 2023: In 2021, Nicaraguan ruler Daniel Ortega began the process of pulling Nicaragua out of the Organization of American States following its refusal to recognize his victory in elections during which all his rivals were either in jail or in exile. That dynamic reflected a crisis in Nicaragua that began in 2018

Issue Nov 01-07 2023: On November 1, 2023, Francisco Bustillo resigned as Uruguay’s Foreign Minister after recordings of a conversation he had in November 2022 with then Deputy-Foreign Minister Carolina Ache about drug trafficker Sebastián Marset (currently the subject of an international manhunt) went viral. The opposition had criticized the government for fast tracking a

Issue Oct 25-31 2023: On October 29, 2023, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s allies largely lost in municipal and provincial elections. The result was widely proclaimed a clear sign of the broad and growing discontent with his left-leaning government and does not bode well for his promised reforms to the health system and labor relations. Governorships