“The word history refers to an investigation of what has taken place. For that reason, history, said the ancients, is life’s teacher….it teaches those who write it and those who read it.”

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

One of the thousands of problems afflicting Mexico is the reduction of democracy to little more than a representative process fueled by votes. With few exceptions, neither the right nor the left can conceive of it in any other way.

“The reelection of political representatives…in theory seems like a good idea because…their experience with public affairs [makes them qualified] to seek the public good in the face of particular interests or factious powers, whether they be economic, military, spiritual, or now criminal.”

Large swathes of the left in Brazil claim that the only way President Dilma Rousseff’s mandate will survive intact in coming months is if she makes significant changes to her economic policy. Such an approach is doomed from the start because it implies that her economic policy is indefensible.

The country’s political discord is driven by popular anger, which President Rousseff’s post-election bait and switch to austerity only amplified. 

Former President Álvaro Uribe’s rightwing Centro Democrático party hoped for an election result in 2015 “equal to that of 2014,” but they discovered that these “were very different battles.”  At the same time Horacio Serpa, the leader of the Liberal Party, injudiciously bet his famous mustache on the election. 

The tragedy of Iguala, in which the 43 student teachers (or “normalistas”) from Ayotzinapa disappeared, did more that expose the corruption and complicity of police forces and local government authorities with organized crime. 

Nicolás Maduro admits the political “emergency” and denounces the coming “coup.”