Brazil’s GDP for 2016 contracted 3.6%, after falling 3.8% in 2015, confirming that the current downturn is the country’s worst recession since 1947, when the government began systematically compiling data on the economy, and probably the worst in its history. Indeed, it represents a bigger downturn than Brazil experienced during the Great Depression. While the

Venezuelans marked the fourth anniversary of the death of President Hugo Chávez, leader of the so-called “Bolivarian Revolution.” Chávez was president from 1999 to when he died on March 5, 2013, at the age of 58, after battling cancer for nearly two years. Some Venezuelans marched in parades and listened to speeches, while others protested.

For almost two decades, left-wing coalitions have dominated political power in many Latin American countries. Yet of late they have been faltering at the polls. While primary commodity prices were high, left-leaning leaders successfully wielded redistributive policies to raise living standards and decrease inequality, thereby sustaining their hold on office. But now that the region’s

The anointed successor to President Rafael Correa, Former Vice President Lenín Moreno, led in the voting on Sunday, February 19, 2017, but fell less than a percentage point shy of the 40% necessary to avoid a runoff election in April. Moreno, a left-leaning advocate for the disabled, served as vice president from 2007 to 2013.

Investigations into bribes by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht are threatening politicians across Latin America, and have now sparked drama in Peru. The Peruvian attorney general announced that he would seek the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on money laundering and influence-trafficking charges, though bribes by Odebrecht were also paid out for projects built during

Marisa Letícia, the wife of Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, died on February 3, 2017. She had been in intensive care since January 24 with a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm. Doctors in São Paulo at Sirio-Libanes Hospital said “an absence of blood flow in the brain” caused her

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a scheduled meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump after a dustup on Twitter, following Trump’s use of an executive order to demand the construction of a wall on the border (which he insists Mexico will pay for). The incident generated more discussion about the nature of the United States’

On the last full day of Barack Obama’s presidency, the Mexican government transferred the infamous drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Lorea, to U.S. custody. Pundits wondered at the timing of the transfer, while news outlets dug into the nature of the charges, his plea, his likely wealth, his new “tunnel-proof” home, and the meaning

Violent protests that erupted in December 2016 and early January 2017, in response to gasoline price hikes known as the “gasolinazo,” continue to reverberate in Mexico. Fuel prices that were long subsidized by the federal government will now be adjusted to international prices and governed by the law of supply and demand. President Enrique Peña

Latin Americans, Mexicans in particular, have begun the process of coming up with strategies to deal with Donald Trump, as well as the likely chaos he will bring in his wake. They contemplate his “wall,” and his demands that they pay for it, while trying to gauge the long-term impact on their economy and the