On Sunday, March 1, 2020, Luis Lacalle Pou took the oath of office as president of Uruguay, demonstrating the business-as-usual nature of Uruguayan democracy. His incoming right-wing coalition and his Partido Nacional (PN) will replace the outgoing center-left government of the Frente Amplio, which has held the presidency for the last three terms. President Lacalle

During Brazil’s carnival parades of February 2020, protesters mocked and satirized what they call the increasingly authoritarian government of President Bolsonaro. Their themes of protest railed against the president’s racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and attacks on the environment and on indigenous peoples, as well as violence and the militarization of the government. Commentators offered plenty

In mid-February 2020, news of two new femicides shocked Mexicans, and especially Mexican women. The murder, skinning, and dismemberment of 25-year-old Íngrid Escamilla, and the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett, whose body was discovered in a plastic garbage bag in Mexico City’s Tlahuac neighborhood, convulsed the nation. Given that their killings are

On Sunday, February 9, 2020, President Nayib Bukele stormed into in El Salvador’s Congress, accompanied by dozens of soldiers with assault weapons. Entrusting himself to the alleged teachings of God, Bukele threatened the deputies there with a call to the people to mount an insurrection if the legislators would not pass his controversial loan plan

In early February 2020, Mexico continued to grapple with the thousands of Central Americans who are waiting at the U.S. border for some form of asylum, the thousands who are attempting to cross its territory, and the thousands more at its southern border who seek entry for asylum or right of transit. While migrants protest

On Sunday, January 26, 2020, Peru held a legislative election after President Martín Vizcarra used his constitutional power to dissolve Congress at the end of September 2019. The new Congress will finish out the five-year term of the previous Congress, ending in 2021. Vizcarra dissolved the legislative and called elections in a bid to end

On January 19, 2020, the Movimiento al Socialismo or MAS, the party of former Bolivian President Evo Morales, chose Luis Arce, the former Minister of Economy, as its candidate for president in the upcoming election. Ex-Chancellor David Choquehuanca will be his running mate. The new election will be held because of the debacle that occurred

On January 14, 2020, Alejandro Giammattei Falla took the oath of office as Guatemala’s new president, replacing outgoing President Jimmy Morales. While many Guatemalans are not optimistic about the country’s probable trajectory under Giammattei, they overwhelmingly rejoiced at the end of Morales’ administration, which most observers say was racked by corruption, cronyism, sexual misconduct, cynicism,

Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, was sworn in for another term as president of Venezuela’s unicameral legislature, the Asamblea Nacional or AN, on January 7, 2020, after a rancorous standoff with Venezuelan military personnel and police officers who initially prevented him from entering the building. In his absence, a plurality, but reportedly not a quorum,

On December 10, 2019, Alberto Fernández assumed the office of President of Argentina. He united the various factions of Peronismo in the Frente de Todos coalition, and alongside his Vice President, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, replaced President Mauricio Macri, the first non-Peronista president who managed to complete a term in office in almost