Issue Aug 28-Sep 03 2024: On August 30, 2024, Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media platform X in Brazil after the company refused to comply with his order to appoint a legal representative. De Moraes also moved against other Musk assets, including Starlink. Commentators in

Issue Aug 21-27 2024: In late August 2024, the presidents of Latin America’s major countries still could not agree on how to deal with the crisis in Venezuela over its July 28 presidential election. In particular, those who place themselves on the left are beginning to criticize each other’s actions, especially the degree to which

Issue Aug 14-20 2024: Venezuela, and Latin America in general, remained in crisis a month after Venezuela’s contested July 2024 presidential election. Though the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia de Venezuela (TSJ) ratified the results proclaimed by the Maduro regime, major players around the region, the hemisphere, and the world rejected the unsupported claim of victory,

Issue Aug 07-13 2024: In mid-August 2024, Latin American leaders remained divided and unsure of how to respond to claims by the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela that it won the recent presidential election, while other international observers worried about human rights violations and repression of protesters. Editorialists and commentators rose to the occasion yet

Issue Aug 01-07 2024: In the first week of August 2024, Latin American governments continued to clash over the disputed outcome of the July 28 presidential election in Venezuela. The regime of President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory but refused to show the electoral results while repressing and arresting protesters, causing even several left-leaning governments, intellectuals,

On July 28, 2024, Venezuela held its presidential election. Surprising no one, early in the morning on July 29 its Consejo Nacional Electoral declared that President Nicolás Maduro had been reelected for another six years in office. CNE Chairman Elvis Amoroso said Maduro received 51.2% after 80% of the vote was counted, representing a “strong

As part of President Gustavo Petro’s ongoing “Total Peace” effort in Colombia, in late June 2024, government officials traveled to Caracas for the formal start of peace talks with the Segunda Marquetalia (SM) guerrilla group. Peace Commissioner Otty Patiño and government negotiators met with representatives of one of the former commanders of the now-defunct guerrilla

Issue Jun 12-18 2024: In late June 2024, in the runup to the July 28 elections in Venezuela, political experts, journalists, government officials, and regular Latin Americans who are worried about the health of democracy in the region all focused on the disturbing actions of the Nicolás Maduro regime’s ongoing attempt to undercut the opposition.

Issue Jun 05-11 2024: Halfway through his first year in office, President Javier Milei of Argentina presides over a self-generated recession (driven by his supposedly inflation killing “adjustment”) which he insists is medicine that Argentinians must swallow. For the moment, he retains significant popular support from an electorate hoping to arrive at his Libertarian Promised

Issue May 29-Jun 04 2024: On June 2, 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum, a Jewish environmental engineer and the former mayor of Mexico City, was elected as the first woman president of Mexico representing current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s left-wing Morena party and the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition. She defeated her main opponent, who was also