Uruguay’s president-elect, Luis Lacalle Pou, who won a hotly contested election by less than 40,000 votes, will face strong opposition and a fragile government coalition.
While some fear that Alberto Fernández’s victory means a return to the populist and fiscally irresponsible policies of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the country’s current political and economic state will likely force the new president to take a moderate course.
Following the runoff election on November 24, Uruguay will face the challenge of remaining one of the strongest democracies in Latin America. This will be a shared responsibility between the winner and the losing party.
Largely absent from the conversation on China’s influence in Latin America has been a dedicated look at the normative impact of relations with Beijing on governance—and whether closer relationships with China’s party-state authorities affect democracy in the region.
Sunday’s presidential elections in Argentina and Uruguay proved democracy is still well and alive in a region where protests are raging, but revealed an anti-incumbent mood in the electorate.
Elections in five countries last week are changing the political landscape of the region. Will these new governments bring about positive change or feed into the chaos spreading across Latin America?
As social discontent grows in Chile, can the government address the concerns of the country’s stratified and for now, deeply fractured society?
The increase in the subway fare in Chile triggered nation-wide protests, but the price hike was the last straw in a series of events that have left Chileans burdened and weary in their everyday lives.
In a region with diverse ideologies, different policy positions are likely to hinder decision making at international fora were consensus is a must.
Chubut—Argentina’s second richest province in oil and gas reserves—is a microcosm of the ills that trouble the South American country and provide a warning of what could come.
