A federal judge, Uriel Villegas Ortiz, and his wife, Verónica Barajas, were murdered in their Colima city home on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, in front of their two daughters, aged 3 and 7, and a domestic employee. The judge handled drug trafficking and other organized crime cases, and before moving to Colima from Jalisco in

On Sunday June 7, 2020, thousands of Brazilians came out to protest against the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro. They took to the streets in various cities to demonstrate against the right-wing president and his management of the coronavirus crisis. They outnumbered pro-government demonstrators. As his poll numbers cratered and he lashed out at protesters

On May 31, 2020, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro egged on supporters who protested against Congress and the Supreme Court, and brawled in the street with anti-government activists in many cities. Concerns about institutional breakdown increased as Brazil achieved the dubious record of having the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus cases after the United States. Bolsonaro

Jeanine Áñez, who assumed the position of “transitional” Interim President of Bolivia in November 2019 after the resignation by (or coup against) Evo Morales, suspended the election scheduled for May 3, 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, without a specific replacement date. In late May 2020, she found herself in an escalating crisis because of

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro continues to disregard public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic, still pursuing his “political war” against quarantine measures implemented by state governments, while demanding “a return to normality.” On May 17, 2020, he mingled with lockdown protesters even as São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, struggled to keep its healthcare system functioning.

Like a treatment for a low budget action movie, the plan to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela involved political intrigue, clandestine meetings, spies and double agents, geopolitical rivalry, and of course, swash-buckling, former Special Forces Gringo mercs working for a U.S. security contractor in Miami. On Sunday, May 3, and Monday, May 4, 2020,

Political uproar continued in Brazil following the resignation on April 24, 2020, of Sergio Moro, the notorious anti-corruption crusader and Minister of Justice. Moro left his post complaining of “political interference” from President Bolsonaro, who fired Mauricio Valeixo, the federal police chief. Moro stressed that he could not do his job without “autonomy,” and his

On April 16, 2020, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro fired his Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, after weeks of clashes regarding the need for social distancing to combat Covid-19. Soon thereafter, on April 19, Bolsonaro attended a public rally in front of the main army headquarters in Brasilia and attacked lockdown measures meant to fight

In the second week of April, 2020, Brazilian President Bolsonaro continued to argue that the main challenge for Brazil is the economy and ensuring jobs, while downplaying the threat of coronavirus as a “mild flu.” He flouted rules for social distancing and feuded with his minister of health, despite evidence that a large majority of

In early April 2020, the disturbing sight of abandoned cadavers in the streets of Guayaquil traumatized Latin Americans as pictures and videos went viral around the region. Local authorities struggled to address the crisis, generated by the explosive spread of the Covid-19 virus in Ecuador, while the families of the dead expressed their grief, anguish,