Around the region abortion is legal only in Cuba, Uruguay, and in Mexico City, where there is no restriction in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.  In most other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, abortion is legal in some restricted cases, specifically, if the mother’s life or health is in danger, if she

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held its fourth summit in Quito, Ecuador on January 27, 2016.  Established in Caracas in 2011 under the auspices of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, CELAC promotes the integration and development of the 33 member countries, (and resistance against Yankee hegemony).  Indeed, Ecuadorian President Rafael

Venezuela’s legislative and executive branches threw down in their fight for dominance amid an economic crisis that is spiraling out of control.  The economy of the world’s fifth-largest oil producer has been slammed by plummeting oil prices, which since September 2014 have dropped from US$90.00 per barrel to US$21.00. Revenues from fossil fuels generate 95%

A year after the mysterious death of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman there are still more questions than answers.  Found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head, just days after filing a criminal complaint against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, his death thoroughly shocked Argentina’s political world.  Not only are there

The second recapture of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. “El Chapo,” the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, focused the region’s attention yet again.   This was the third time that the drug lord was taken into custody. The first was after he escaped from a maximum security prison in the state of Jalisco in 2001, and the

On December 6, 2015 the opposition alliance in Venezuela, the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD), won a super majority of 112 deputies in the 167 seat unicameral Asamblea Nacional (AN) or National Assembly, displacing the long-dominant Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), led by President Nicolás Maduro, the hand-picked successor to the leader of the

As Venezuelans prepared for watershed parliamentary elections on December 6, 2015, events took an ominous turn with the murder of an opposition political leader and activist.   Luis Manuel Díaz, a local leader of the opposition Acción Democrática (AD) party, was shot and killed at a campaign event in the town of Altagracia de Orituco in

Cambiemos leader Mauricio Macri edged out Daniel Scioli, candidate of the ruling Frente para la Victoria, also known as Kirchnerismo, the left-wing of the Peronista party. While the narrow victory was more a product of a divided Peronismo than a united opposition, that did not dissuade observers from widely hailing the victory as an important

Smoldering tensions between Chile and Peru flared after Santiago reacted angrily to President Ollanta Humala of Peru’s unilateral decision on November 7, 2015 to create a new district, called LaYarada-Los Palos, inside a disputed border region.  The Chilean government, rejecting the actionwhich tore open a century-old dispute, insisted that the district “unquestionably includes Chilean territory”

The first round of Argentina’s presidential election in late October surprised observers across the political spectrum.  The official Peronista candidate did not win outright, and even seems to be vulnerable in the November runoff.  It has generated much talk of the different economic and political models in play, even as other pundits argue that there