In a speech before the start of the new session, the head of the UN Human Rights Commission emphasized the complementarity between human rights and national sovereignty. Was his message intended for any specific countries and their representatives on the Council?
UNASUR’s statement that it would not question the judicial decisions of its member states over the recent sentencing of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was as predictable as it was troubling. It’s a perfect example of how the region has regressed, with little respect for its troubled past and a warning of things to come.
Corruption scandals and slowing economic growth have forced President Michelle Bachelet to backtrack on her campaign promises. Now facing the lowest levels of popular approval for any elected president since the 1990 transition, can Bachelet re-focus her government’s policy drift in time for the 2016 local elections?
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.
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.
