With right-left polarization amongst the region’s politicians, and growing U.S.-China competition among its economies, Latin America’s most likely response to any U.S. trade actions will be further intra-regional conflict and division.
While AMLO’s legacy of centralized power and ambitious social spending provides Sheinbaum with a strong political foundation, her maneuverability is limited by fiscal constraints and a need to foster economic growth.
The democratic left’s approach is shaped by a generational shift within the broader leftist movements, whose young progressives center democracy, social justice, and human rights over traditional left-wing solidarity.
By all measures, it is the regime’s most harrowing election in the past 25 years—if Maduro respects the results, it will almost certainly mean relinquishing power.
Though the agreement nominally gave the regime a fair chance at winning the election by lifting sanctions and boosting the economy, a fair chance was not good enough for Maduro when electoral loss could mean the rest of his life behind bars.
