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

Issue Feb 08-14 2023: The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega released over 200 political prisoners who were then immediately exiled. The detainees, including opposition leaders, priests, and critics of the government, were rounded up from various prisons and home confinements, and early on February 9, 2023, were loaded onto a plane and sent to

Issue Feb 01-07 2023: In the first week of February 2023, thousands of Peruvians from all over the country continued to march in Lima against the government of President Dina Boluarte, with more deadly clashes between the protesters and law enforcement. The conflict reflected the regional, ethnic, social, and economic divisions that have defined Peru

Issue Jan 25-31 2023: By the end of January 2023, marches in Peru that led to often violent clashes with security forces had continued largely non-stop since December 7, 2022, the day former President Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. The protesters, many of them peasants and Indigenous

Issue Jan 18-24 2023: On January 24, 2023, the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, took place in Buenos Aires. Since CELAC’s creation in December of 2011 in Caracas, many Latin Americans have dreamed that it could displace the Organization of American States, which they claim is merely