On October 27, 2019, the Peronista/ “Kirchnerista” candidate for president and leader of the Frente de Todos coalition, Alberto Fernández, lived up to the promise of his victory in the August primary and defeated President Mauricio Macri with a sufficient percentage of the vote to dispense with the need for a second round. Now he

On October 20, 2019, Bolivia held its general elections, including the presidential contest. According to the Bolivian Constitution, the winner in the first round must obtain 50% plus one of the valid votes, or 40% of the votes, with a margin of at least 10 percentage points over the second place candidate. While President Evo

From October 4 to October 13, 2019, indigenous groups from communities in the Amazon and the Andes led demonstrations demanding that Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno reinstate fuel subsidies he had slashed at the behest of the International Monetary Fund. They were joined by unionized workers and students in a series of major protests that often

On September 30, 2019, Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra dissolved Congress, as was his constitutional prerogative, after they had declared no confidence a second time. His Fujimorista opponents who control Congress tried to counterpunch by declaring Vice President Mercedes Aráoz Interim President, but she demurred, resigning her post after declining the opposition’s nomination, saying she hoped

On September 26, 2014, students from the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, headed for the traditional October 2nd march in Mexico City, which annually brings together students from all over the country. Their commandeered buses were stopped by police, and in the resulting incident, three students were killed and forty-three went

Protests that began in Nicaragua in April 2018 against a social security reform, and evolved into a movement demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murillo, continued to be savagely repressed in late September 2019. Human rights organizations estimated that the repression has left 325 dead, 2,000 injured,

The chaos of Venezuela’s crisis deepened in mid-September, 2019, after Colombian police confirmed alleged ties between Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and the drug trafficking group “Los Rastrojos.” The police department of Cúcuta, Colombia’s largest border city, stated that Guaidó posed for pictures with two leaders of the group from Cali, which manages drug trafficking

Analysts are pessimistic about Argentina’s economic and financial future on the eve of the country’s presidential election in late October, 2019. Despite a massive and historic bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by incumbent President Mauricio Macri, Argentina continues to endure economic contraction, inflation, and credit worries. Polls show Macri running well behind

On August 28, 2019, senior FARC leaders, including “Iván Marquez,” “Jesús Santrich,” “Romaña,” and “El Paisa,” appeared in a Youtube video during which they brandished weapons and announced a “new stage of armed struggle.” Márquez, the FARC’s political chief, standing with the leaders and other guerrillas, read a manifesto explaining that, “while there is still

In late August 2019, a large number of wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil kindled a firestorm of media coverage worldwide. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro initially seemed to ignore the emergency, and then switched to blaming environmental groups for starting the fires to discredit him. His environmental minister blamed seasonal natural causes. Satellite