Issue Apr 19-25 2023: On April 20, 2023, Chilean President Gabriel Boric called for a new state lithium policy that would create a “public-private alliance.” Chile is the world’s second-largest lithium producer, after Australia. The new approach focuses on the creation of an Empresa Nacional del Litio, but the plan would also involve the participation

In mid-April 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, arrived in China for a widely anticipated state visit. On April 14, Lula received a grand welcome from Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Both leaders hoped to create a dynamic and provocative partnership that can

Issue Apr 05-11 2023: On April 10, 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva marked the first 100 days of his third term in office. These few months were marked by his attempts to rekindle the social policies of his first two terms in office, from 2003 to 2010, and get a start on

Issue Mar 29-Apr 04 2023: On March 29, 2023, Ecuador’s Corte Constitucional, or CC, ruled that the impeachment of President Guillermo Lasso for alleged acts of corruption was “admissible.” For a president to be removed from office in Ecuador, 92 votes in its 137-member Asamblea Nacional are needed, a number most observers say is probable.

Issue Mar 22-28 2023: Leaders of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Latin America and Europe met in the Dominican Republic on March 24 and 25, 2023, to discuss the “serious challenges” facing the nations, though several key Latin American leaders were absent. While the summit focused on post COVID-19 economic recovery issues in

Issue Mar 15-21 2023: In mid-March 2023, democratically elected, left-of-center governments controlled a huge majority of Latin American territory in the second wave of the so-called “Pink Tide.” This second broad surge of left-leaning governments in the region during the twenty-first century, while larger in extent than the first, is more heterogeneous and more embattled.

Issue Mar 08-14 2023: President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has become one of the most polarizing leaders in Latin America. Condemned by international human rights NGOs, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, pundits, and academics as a new style “caudillo” who rides roughshod over his citizens’ political and civil rights, he is widely popular

Issue Mar 01-07 2023: On March 2, 2023, a group of UN human rights experts on Nicaragua accused President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murillo, as well as the high command of the National Police and other state entities, of having perpetrated serious and diverse violations of human rights on their

On February 23, 2023, the Mexican Senate approved a package of political changes pushed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or AMLO) known as “Plan B” that, among other things, reduces the budget and size of the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), the entity in charge of organizing and administering elections. The action generated a massive

Issue Feb 15-21 2023: After Colombian President Gustavo Petro decried the mobilization of police in Lima against protesters confronting the government of President Dina Boluarte, comparing them to Nazis, the Peruvian political establishment exploded in outrage. On February 17, 2023, the Peruvian legislature declared Petro persona non grata and forbade his entrance into Peru. Amid