In recent weeks the administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has short circuited the drive for a recall election, and passed a budget without the participation of the Venezuelan Asamblea Nacional, or AN. The Maduro government did these things in ways that many observers both inside and outside the country say do not pass constitutional

President Nicolás Maduro, in alliance with the Venezuelan Supreme Court, passed the country’s Budget for 2017 without going through the opposition-controlled Asamblea Nacional. The maneuver was declared unconstitutional by opposition lawmakers as tempers continue to flare over the administration’s stalling tactics toward the recall referendum.  Though the opposition launched its recall campaign months ago, Venezuela’s

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has brought one of the longest civil wars in modern times considerably closer to a peaceful resolution, but warned that there is still danger that the peace process could collapse. The Nobel gave Santos and his peace process a tremendous boost, and undercut Former President

President Juan Manual Santos said that, following Colombians’ narrow rejection of his peace deal with the FARC rebels, his ceasefire with the guerrillas would remain in place.  (Voters split 50.22% against and 49.79% for the agreement, with just over 13 million votes cast.) Santos also said he would meet with representatives of the victorious “No”

Latin American leaders set aside their disagreements to gather in Colombia on September 26, 2016 to lend support for and witness the signing ceremony of the peace deal hammered out by President Juan Manuel Santos and guerrilla chief Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño, along with other leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces

Federal prosecutors in Brazil filed corruption charges against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his wife, Marisa Leticia da Silva. Lula, as he is known, served as president from 2003 to 2010, and became an icon of working class struggle and a powerful political force in Brazil. The prosecutors allege that the former

Forty-three years after the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973, societal divisions were on display as Chile looked back on its own September 11th anniversary. In the dramatic attack on Chile’s presidential palace, President Salvador Allende died at his own hand rather than surrender. Commemorating the event, President Michelle Bachelet pointed

It was a political death foretold, but shocking nonetheless. After her dramatic last speech before the Brazilian Senate on August 29, 61 senators voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office on August 31, 2016. It was the final act in a year-long drama that had paralyzed Latin America’s largest country. Rousseff, Brazil’s first female

Colombia’s government and its biggest rebel group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or the FARC, reached an historic accord that hopes to end the world’s longest running conflict. The South American nation has endured seven continuous decades of armed struggle carried out by the FARC and its predecessors. Now the agreement must still be

President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico has had a rough ride of late, along with his party the PRI, though Mexicans are feeling negatively about politicians and political parties across the board. Polls show very high percentages of Mexicans see politicos as corrupt and inept, unable to confront violent crime and drug trafficking, and powerless