There is increasing pressure on former President Uribe to join Colombian peace talk efforts; the FARC will not accept an agreement that calls for jail time; and the armed forces are trying to envision their role in post-conflict Colombia. 

In the first half of March 2015 President Dilma Rousseff faced a revolt in Congress over austerity legislation, an ongoing corruption scandal at the state-run oil company Petrobras, and truly massive protest marches in cities throughout the country.  In fact, pundits now talk of a breakdown of the politics of “class conciliation” that have underwritten

The leader of Chile’s main right-wing party, the UDI, resigned amid a campaign finance scandal, and the center right RN said it will keep its distance for now since “it is too early” to reactivate the coalition. As a result there are calls for stricter laws dealing with corruption and measures to revive the legitimacy

Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández likened the electoral deal between the UCR and PRO party with the 1999 alliance led by ex-president Fernando De La Rúa that ended in the 2001 crisis. He said this coalition belongs to the “dreadful right.” 

A year before Peru’s next presidential election the leader of the country’s biggest opposition party has a double-digit lead over her next potential rival. 

Elections are approaching and there is still a paramilitary threat to the political process on the local level, where threats of violence or outright “purchase of votes” affect races ranging from mayors to members of Congress. 

The first International Forum for Emancipation and Equality was held in Buenos Aires in mid-March 2015.  It wrestled with the ongoing aftershocks of the 2008 global financial crisis, and pointed to the risks represented by the world capitalist economy. Noam Chomsky gave the keynote address that pointed to the weakening of the neoliberal regime, but

According to a report on Colombia’s regional economies by the Banco de la República, the center of the country has experienced increased unemployment and widespread inflation.  

Sixty-five per cent of Limeños chose wood products (floors, doors, windows, furniture, etc.) for their homes, according to studies by the Technological Institute of Higher Education and Private Construction-Capeco. 

Economists suggest exploring Central American and African markets, while some even advise mini-devaluations of the peso.