The competition is beginning to heat up as Peronista políticos jockey for position in a crowded field of would-be successors to the Kirchner dynasty, while the opposition hopes to fish in the troubled waters. 

It’s finally official: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will be the presidential candidate for the Workers’ Party (PT) in the October elections; she has also received the support of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

Costa Rica’s new President Luis Guillermo Solis pledged to run his administration as a “glass house” and tackle the corruption “eating away” at the country and the economy. 

With just weeks to go before Colombia’s presidential elections, polls show President Juan Manuel Santos maintains a comfortable lead, but a second round is almost certain.  Meanwhile the continuing episode of ousted Mayor Gustavo Petro hangs over the political scene. 

The governor of Miranda state, Henrique Capriles, addressed the opposition’s view of the effectiveness of talks with the embattled government of Nicolás Maduro. 

The Ashaninka indigenous leader Ruth Buendía received the Goldman Prize and Lima’s Mayor Susana Villarán launched her re-election campaign. 

The new, leftist president of El Salvador looks to bring former dissidents in from the cold. 

Leaders of the Kirchnerista wing of Peronismo are eying post 2015 scenarios. 

The Latin American right faces a critical situation.  With just two governments securely in their column, and no real chance of winning a new country for their cause in elections this year, the debate has turned to how to address the new scenario of political and ideological dominance by the left.  

The ongoing political turmoil in Venezuela continued on a low boil, with more efforts to find a working agreement between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the country’s well-heeled protestors.  Yet there was still plenty of drama with the kidnapping and subsequent release of an opposition journalist.