On April 11, 2021, Peru achieved a dubious distinction that has yet to receive much public attention: for the first time in the history of global electoral democracy, the total of blank and null votes exceeded the amount of votes received by any single candidate running to serve as a country’s head of state.
Guillermo Lasso was inaugurated as Ecuador’s 47th president on Monday. Given a divided legislature, the new president should prioritize unity.
After several months of waiting, the Colombian government unveiled a tax bill intended to address the fiscal and social crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the proposed bill has not been well-received, and the following verdict has been almost unanimous: the proposal punishes the Colombian middle-class and jeopardizes economic recovery. Unless an agreement is reached in Congress in the coming months, Colombia could risk its post-pandemic socioeconomic recovery.
Mapuche organizations are calling on international agencies to intervene, as Chile’s National Congress pushes forward a bill that would deploy troops to southern Chile in response to alleged terrorism threats.
Colombia’s ambitious new pledge aims to reduce its emissions by 51 percent compared to projected emissions in 2030 and reduce black carbon or soot emissions by 40 percent compared to 2014. The new target is consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goal and has put Colombia on a more promising path to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Enabling early pension withdrawals proved to be a suboptimal policy in Chile. Yet for other Latin American countries, early pension withdrawals should not be immediately discounted as a viable policy option.
After the election on February 7, Ecuador is now faced with a runoff between Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso on April 11. Regardless of the outcome, the challenges facing the country’s economic future are enormous.
This does not mean a Petro presidency is the best option for Colombia. Though both the current government and the business sector want to avoid this scenario, their actions have continued to open the door to the possibility of a Petro victory.
The Colombian oil industry had many ups and downs in 2020, but Wall Street has been lifting 2021 oil price predictions, and positive oil price forecasts are expected to help bolster Colombia’s production.
After the Centro Democrático party sought to interfere in the United States presidential elections, there have been further efforts to interject themselves into the domestic politics of other countries including Peru, Argentina, and now Ecuador.
