The Pontiff traveled to the two South American neighbors from January 15-21, 2018, and did not shy away from contentious subjects in his homilies. His visit, however, especially in Chile, was overshadowed by his support for Bishop Juan Barros, who many Chileans say covered up sexual abuse by an influential priest, Fernando Karadima. Consequently, Chileans

In the first twelve days of 2018, people in need of basic foodstuffs fully or partially looted over one hundred grocery stores and supermarkets in Venezuela. The events, triggered by a government order to shops mandating that they slash prices back to December 2017 levels, created chaos. Frantic Venezuelans swarmed stores at the prospect of

The new book by Michael Wolff portrays U.S. President Donald Trump as unprepared and unfit for the demands of the presidency, with a White House in chaos during his administration’s first six months. Latin Americans reacted to the revelations with little surprise, plenty of concern, and significant amounts of resignation. Pundits and political leaders offered

On December 17, 2017, former president and billionaire entrepreneur Sebastián Piñera won Chile’s presidential runoff election with surprising ease, adding Chile to the list of countries that have shifted to the Right in recent years. Piñera garnered over 54% of the vote over the 45% for center-left Senator Alejandro Guillier. While many pundits had predicted

On November 19, 2017, Chileans went to the polls to select a new president and national legislators, and the polls indicated that former President Sebastián Piñera, the candidate of the center right, was the clear front runner. Yet Piñera, who governed Chile from 2010 to 2014, came in seven percentage points short of where forecasts

While the Venezuelan economy continues to contract and oil production continues to fall, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has had to scramble (somewhat unsuccessfully) to make payments on the nation’s debts. On November 13, 2017, Venezuelan officials met with creditors in Caracas, but little headway was made, even as ratings agencies declared Venezuela in

The Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), also known as the Sandinistas, won the bulk of Nicaragua’s mayoral offices in its municipal elections on November 5, 2017. The FSLN, former guerrillas who prevailed in the 1979 Revolution and ruled Nicaragua until 1990 under President Daniel Ortega, has been Nicaragua’s dominant political force since Ortega returned

Accused yet again of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, on Oct. 25, 2017, Brazilian President Michel Temer found his political fate once more in the hands of the Chamber of Deputies, which had to vote on whether or not to accept the charges against him. For Brazil’s Supreme Court to investigate the president, 342 of

President Macri’s Cambiemos coalition won in Argentina’s top five population centers, including the city of Buenos Aires, and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Santa Fe, and Mendoza. The comprehensive victories by the president’s allies strengthened his position in Congress, and seemed to cast doubt on the idea of a national-level political comeback by his

On October 15, 2017, President Nicolás Maduro’s government said it had won a landslide victory in the closely watched election of state governors. The outcome shocked many experts amid claims by the opposition of fraud, manipulation, and official intimidation. Many international observers called the official results “suspicious.” Maduro’s supporters claimed to have won the governorships