Ongoing concern about what the continuing collapse of the Venezuelan government and economy could mean for the region, along with growing fears over the possibility of a military intervention by the United States, has kept Latin American media outlets riveted on the situation in Venezuela. The political struggle between President Nicolás Maduro and the presumptive

After Juan Guaidó, president of the Venezuelan legislature, declared himself acting president of Venezuela in late January 2019, countries around the world began taking sides. On February 2, 2019, Venezuelans poured into the streets both in protest and in support of President Nicolás Maduro. Nations declared support for one or the other of Venezuela’s claimants

On January 23, 2019, Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s unicameral legislature, the Asamblea Nacional or AN, declared himself “presidente encargado” (“president in charge”) to serve as interim president of Venezuela based on provisions of the country’s constitution, with the goal of holding new presidential elections. He made his declaration on an historic and symbolic

The car bombing at a police academy in Colombia’s capital on January 17, 2019, reminded Colombians of deadly attacks carried out during earlier chapters of its guerrilla conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. The attack in Bogotá left 21 dead and 68 injured, and was the most lethal bombing in over a decade. The Ejército

On January 10, 2019, President Nicolás Maduro was inaugurated for a second term in office, after elections that were widely condemned as rigged and manipulated. The Organization of American States (OAS) voted not to recognize Maduro’s legitimacy, adopting a resolution supported by Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, the United States, Paraguay, and Peru,

On New Year’s Day 2019, Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in as Brazil’s 38th president. He promised to free his country from “socialism and political correctness,” while vowing to tackle corruption, crime, and economic mismanagement in Latin America’s largest nation. While he pledged to obey the Constitution and respect democratic norms, he later stood before a

On December 1, 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO as he is universally known, solemnly recited the oath of office and received the Mexican presidential sash from outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto. AMLO is the first leftist president of Mexico since the 1930s, and since his party controls both houses of Congress, he began

In the second half of November 2018, thousands of migrants from Central America, men, women, and children, trekked to the United States-Mexico border, with a large portion streaming into Tijuana. They came seeking asylum in the U.S., fleeing violence, poverty, and discrimination in their home countries. After President Donald Trump repeatedly denigrated them, and asserted

On November 8, 2018, Valeria Cruz Medel, 22, was killed as she worked out in a gym. The news of her killing was relayed by phone to her mother, Carmen Medel, on the floor of the Mexican Cámara de Diputados during a legislative session. Medel, a deputy for Veracruz from the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional party, or

On October 31, 2018, Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori and leader of the right-wing Fuerza Popular party, was ordered to return to jail for her involvement in the massive corruption scandals currently jarring the higher reaches of power in Peru. Fujimori had been arrested on October 10 and released a week