On September 18, 2021, the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, or CELAC, held its VI Summit, the first in four years. The meeting took place in Mexico shortly after the commemoration of the 211th anniversary of Mexican Independence. Mexico under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) has been one of the strongest

On September 12, 2021, Argentina’s ruling Frente de Todos (FdeT) coalition suffered a heavy defeat in the PASO (Primarias, Abiertas, Simultáneas y Obligatorias) primary elections at the hands of the opposition Juntos por el Cambio alliance (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri. In the run-up to the contest, observers predicted that President Alberto Fernández had

In the days before September 7, 2021, Brazil’s Independence Day, President Jair Bolsonaro made increasingly provocative and menacing statements about his nation’s Supreme Court (and other institutions of democratic government), obviously to rally his base and demonstrate that he has the backing of large numbers of voters. He called on his followers to flood the

On August 27, 2021, the government of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and Prime Minister Guido Bellido survived a vote of confidence motion in the national single-chamber legislature which is currently controlled by the right-wing opposition. Castillo, Bellido, and the cabinet got 73 votes in favor and 50 against, with no abstentions. Castillo needed 63 to

In mid-August 2021, representatives of the fractured Venezuelan opposition met with officials of the beleaguered government of Nicolás Maduro for yet another round of “dialogue” focused on finding a solution to Venezuela’s interlocking social, economic, and political crises. Earlier meetings took place in recent years in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and Norway, and this

Since May of 2021, the government of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has arrested almost every opposition politician who might challenge his bid for another term in office in the upcoming November 7 election. On August 13, the regime continued its repressive trajectory by raiding the offices of La Prensa, Nicaragua’s oldest newspaper, and the

Beginning on July 11, 2021, Cubans repeatedly took to the streets of most of the nation’s cities in the largest anti-government demonstrations in almost 30 years. They protested against shortages of food, electricity, and medicine, as well as restrictions on individual liberties, while chanting “we want freedom,” “we are not afraid,” and “we want vaccines.”

In late June 2021, Daniel Ortega continued to insist that the political opponents he had imprisoned in Nicaragua were arrested because they wanted to overthrow him in an illegal coup. The Nicaraguan president contended that they are “agents” of the United States. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) countered that the arrests are part

On June 6, 2021, Keiko Fujimori lost the presidential runoff in Peru to Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre by around 44,000 votes. This very narrow margin means that the legal exclusion of results in a handful of polling locations could throw the election to Fujimori. Therefore, she and her party, Fuerza Popular, have continued throughout

In mid-June 2021, the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega continued arresting opposition leaders (especially those running for president later in the year), despite international condemnation. The arrests began on June 2, 2021, with Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997), who is also part owner of La Prensa, Nicaragua’s largest