U.S. President Donald Trump struck down parts of his predecessor Barack Obama’s diplomatic rapprochement with Cuba, re-tightening rules on U.S. citizens travelling to the island, and moving to block U.S. firms from doing business with enterprises controlled by the Cuban military. While Cubans in Miami cheered, and Latin Americans across the region lamented the “return

In the governor’s race in the State of Mexico, the PRI (Mexico’s generally dominant ruling party since 1929) eked out a narrow electoral triumph against the candidate of its most dangerous competitor on the left, the MORENA party led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known by his initials as AMLO). But the arguably Pyrrhic victory

The former commander of the disbanded Panamanian Defense Forces, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, who was called the “last dictator of Panama,” died on May 29, 2017 at the age of 83. Noriega, known as “the Man” by his supporters and “Cara de Piña” (“Pineapple Face”) by his enemies, ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989. He

Brazilian President Michel Temer has been floundering since the recent release of an audio recording that allegedly captures him in the act of signing off on the payment of hush money to Eduardo Cunha, the former President of the Lower House of the Brazilian Congress, who is now serving a 15-year prison sentence. Temer’s predicament

Javier Valdez was an award-winning reporter who focused on drug-trafficking and organized crime in Mexico. He was shot down on a street in Culiacán, the state capital of the northern state of Sinaloa, on May 15, 2017. As shocking as it was, sadly, his was just the most high-profile killing in a continuing surge of

Huge numbers of Venezuelans continue to flood the streets of their nation’s cities and clash with security forces. They march in protest of what many observers around the region call President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian and anti-democratic policies, now intensified by his bid to throw out the constitution crafted by his predecessor and mentor, Hugo

On May 1, May Day, Nicolás Maduro called for a Constituent Assembly in Venezuela to rewrite its constitution. His action was taken against a backdrop in which Venezuela’s economic output shrank some 18% over the last year, and annual inflation this year is projected to top 700%. Thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets

After more than five decades of war waged in the name of bringing revolutionary change, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, now seek to transform themselves into a political party. The mechanisms were hammered out during six years of negotiation as the FARC and the government of President Juan Manuel Santos sought a

On April 19 and 20, 2017 massive opposition protest marches filled the streets of Venezuelan cities, where they faced off counter marchers in support of President Nicolás Maduro, as well as state security forces and armed Chavista militias. Over twenty protesters were killed. As the administration comes to rely ever more on police actions, commentators

The Brazilian Supreme Court announced the launch of additional corruption investigations of nine ministers, three governors, 24 senators, 39 members of the Lower House, and various other elected officials. The Court’s actions were driven by testimony generated through the plea bargains of 78 former officials of Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction group. The ongoing corruption