The trial against Leopoldo López, the jailed leader of Venezuela’s opposition, was never expected to be fair. Yet when Judge Susana Barreiros handed down her ruling late last night,
In the second of a two part series, Orlando J. Pérez looks at popular protests over corruption in Guatemala’s neighbors, El Salvador and Honduras. He argues that CICIG’s recent successes in Guatemala are precisely why it will never be adopted in El Salvador and Honduras.
The landlocked, Southern Cone country is experiencing the same, if not worse, corruption scandals, social protests, approaching economic stagnation, and rising levels of violence widely reported on as just about every country of Latin America and the Caribbean. So why isn’t anyone paying attention?
Was the death of South American rock idol Gustavo Cerati yet another example of Venezuela’s interminable collapse?
Part one of a two-part series, Doctor Perez here looks at the events leading up to the September 6 elections, their implications for the second-round presidential elections and the potential for long-term institutional reform (difficult). The second post will examine the political situation boiling in Guatemala’s neighbors, Honduras and El Salvador.
As the tragicomedy of the 2015-2016 election season plays out, falsehoods, hyperbole and mean-spirited attacks among contenders will proliferate. The issue of trade (along with illegal immigration) will be the proverbial whipping boy in this contest. While the contenders choose not to be fully informed of the facts, there is no excuse for individual citizens not to be.
Brazil’s president is facing protests from both the left and the right, with an approval rating of only 8 percent. The protests are calling for impeachment based on charges of rampant corruption, but politically that isn’t likely to happen. Why? Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority vote from both Houses: unlikely to happen when politicians from all of the major parties are facing corruption charges themselves.
The Center for International Policy and Global Americans urge President Barack Obama to renew the Trading with the Enemy Act for Cuba. Surprised? According to a white paper by Robert Muse, the President’s authority to make changes to the embargo depends on renewal of the Act. Failure to do so will not only tie the executive’s hands to make further changes but also end the important people-to-people exchanges.
How tolerant are citizens across the Americas of LGBT political rights and marriage equality? While support for political rights is higher than support for the rights of LGBT couples to legally wed, the results track largely with levels of economic development in the region, with two notable exceptions.
