Javier Valdez was an award-winning reporter who focused on drug-trafficking and organized crime in Mexico. He was shot down on a street in Culiacán, the state capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, on May 15, 2017. As shocking as it was, sadly, his was just the most high-profile killing in a continuing surge of

Huge numbers of Venezuelans continue to flood the streets of their nation’s cities and clash with security forces. They march in protest of what many observers around the region call President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian and anti-democratic policies, now intensified by his bid to throw out the constitution crafted by his predecessor and mentor, Hugo

On May 1, May Day, Nicolás Maduro called for a Constituent Assembly in Venezuela to rewrite its constitution. His action was taken against a backdrop in which Venezuela’s economic output shrank some 18% over the last year, and annual inflation this year is projected to top 700%. Thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets

After more than five decades of war waged in the name of bringing revolutionary change, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, now seek to transform themselves into a political party. The mechanisms were hammered out during six years of negotiation as the FARC and the government of President Juan Manuel Santos sought a

On April 19 and 20, 2017 massive opposition protest marches filled the streets of Venezuelan cities, where they faced off counter marchers in support of President Nicolás Maduro, as well as state security forces and armed Chavista militias. Over twenty protesters were killed. As the administration comes to rely ever more on police actions, commentators

The Brazilian Supreme Court announced the launch of additional corruption investigations of nine ministers, three governors, 24 senators, 39 members of the Lower House, and various other elected officials. The Court’s actions were driven by testimony generated through the plea bargains of 78 former officials of Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction group. The ongoing corruption

On April 4, 2017 the Organization of American States called on Venezuela to restore its democratic order after the Venezuelan Supreme Court attempted to undercut the standing of the Venezuelan national legislature, though the process in the OAS Permanent Council was hampered by questions of legal standing. As a consequence, some member states objected and

Lenín Moreno, of the ruling socialist Alianza País, or AP, amassed a bit more than 51% of the vote over Guillermo Lasso, of the center-right Creando Oportunidades movement, or CREO, who garnered just shy of 49%. Moreno won the first-round vote with 39% to Lasso’s 28%, but fell short of the necessary 40% to avoid

In recent weeks, Latin Americans have marched in massive protests in various countries (though for different reasons). In Chile, millions of people went into the streets in cities throughout the country to demand changes to the privatized pension system, which was imposed on Chileans by the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1980s. In Argentina, marchers continued

President Mauricio Macri took office fifteen months ago while promising to spur economic growth through his investor-friendly, market-oriented programs. Until recently, organized labor had generally acquiesced to his efforts to cut labor costs, lower interest rates, and reduce the budget deficit. But that honeymoon of patience is apparently over. Striking teachers in Buenos Aires Province