Since the Fall of 2020, Mexico has experienced hundreds of attacks or threats against politicians and candidates, and more than 30 murders of candidates, making the elections of June 6, 2021, some of the most violent in the country’s history. The Chamber of Deputies, 15 of the 32 governors, 30 state legislatures, and 1,900 city

On May 15 and 16, 2021, Chileans voted to elect the members of a constituent assembly to write a new constitution. It will replace the constitution imposed on Chile by the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet, which was issued in 1980 and has been in full force since 1990. A new constitution was a major

In April 2021, the government of Colombian President Iván Duque proposed a tax that generated widespread indignation, protests, and a national strike, all of which security forces moved to crush with their customary brutality. Yet this time, police aggression against demonstrators provoked popular fury that subsequently raged throughout the first half of May, with over

One of the biggest challenges for Joe Biden, since he took office as President of the United States in January 2021, has been the renewed flow of Latin American migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. In late April, the Latin American news media focused on Biden’s situation and evaluated his efforts to confront what he refuses

Raúl Castro’s retirement in April 2021 as first secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party marks the end of an extraordinarily long and coherent era of political power in Latin America. Raúl followed his brother, Fidel Castro, as leader of the party, and the Cuban government. The brothers Castro have ruled Cuba continuously since the Cuban Revolution

On April 11, 2021, Ecuador and Peru held tense and hard-fought presidential elections. In Ecuador, it was the much-anticipated second round between “neoliberal” businessman Guillermo Lasso (making his third run at the presidency) and “progressive” Andrés Arauz, generally regarded as a stand-in for former President Rafael Correa. In Peru, it was the first round of

In early April 2021, a political earthquake compounded Brazil’s severe health crisis. After President Jair Bolsonaro fired his defense minister during a broader cabinet reshuffle, the heads of Brazil’s Army, Navy, and Air Force resigned in protest. The Bolsonaro administration has been particularly reliant on the military, staffing positions throughout the government with current and

A virtual summit on March 26, 2021, marked the 30th anniversary of the founding of Mercosur, the regional trade bloc that comprises Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay (the founding members), along with a number of associate members, including Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Suriname, and Guyana. Venezuela, technically a full member, remains in a kind

In March 2021, the rising numbers of Central American migrants arriving in Northern Mexico have caused Republican critics of U.S. President Joe Biden to accuse him of encouraging migrants (apparently by not treating them with brutality). Democrats, for their part, maintain that the Trump administration left behind a broken system, with thousands of minors still

After the Brazilian Supreme Court annulled former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s graft convictions on March 8, 2021, Lula (as he is known) lost no time jumping right back into Brazil’s political arena. He gave a speech that literally stopped the country in its tracks as Brazilians interrupted their routines to listen. His