On December 19, 2021, Gabriel Boric, a left-wing legislator and former student activist who gained notoriety during anti-government protests, won the runoff election for president in Chile. With over 99% of the vote counted, Boric won 56% percent, defeating his extreme-right opponent, José Antonio Kast (a fundamentalist Catholic and son of a German officer who

In late November 2021, key elections were held in three Latin American countries. On November 19, 2021, Chile and Venezuela voted in presidential primaries and regional elections, respectively. On November 25, 2021, Honduras voted in a tense and historic presidential election. The Chileans faced a dramatic choice between political extremes, while Venezuelans largely checked out

On November 14, 2021, Argentina held legislative elections that saw the power of the ruling Peronista coalition, the Frente de Todos (FdT), much eroded. This seemed likely after the primary elections on September 12, which heralded the reemergence of the opposition coalition, Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri. Macri had lost

On November 7, 2021, Nicaragua held predictably uneventful elections in which President Daniel Ortega easily won reelection. The placid nature of the contest, arising from the fact that Ortega had jailed or driven into exile every likely opponent, belied the international condemnation of the exercise. He thus was able to secure his fourth consecutive term

In late October through early November 2021, the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim A.A. Khan, made a ten-day pass through Latin America, “listening and learning,” and finished up with three days in Venezuela. The ICC, based in The Hague, opened a preliminary investigation in 2018 into alleged human rights abuses by

After barely five months in office, President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador has already suffered serious political turbulence, especially during October of 2021, when a series of challenges appeared simultaneously. A spike in the homicide rate, ham-handed handling of a jump in fuel prices, and his embarrassing appearance in the Pandora Papers scandal (which jumpstarted congressional

On October 18, 2021, protesters in Chile marked the October 2019 social upheaval that generated the current effort to replace the constitution foisted on Chile during the military dictatorship dominated by Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. Thousands of people commemorated the date, known as “18-O,” just as members of the Constituent Convention started drafting

The so-called “Pandora Papers” investigation, a combined effort of over 600 journalists from media outlets including The Washington Post, the BBC, and The Guardian was built on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world. At least 35 current and former political leaders were caught up in the

On October 2, 2021, Brazilians went into the streets of many cities nationwide demanding the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro. Thousands of people protested in 251 cities all across Brazil. The marches were sponsored by labor unions, student organizations, NGOs, and center-left parties, but they were also joined by members of the anti-Bolsonaro Brazilian right.

In late September 2021, Colombia and Mexico marked grim milestones. Colombia counted five bloody years since the signing of peace accords between the Colombian government and the demobilized FARC guerrillas. Mexico counted seven years since the tragic night in Iguala, Guerrero, when 43 students from the Escuela Rural Normal “Raúl Isidro Burgos” de Ayotzinapa, known