The current situation in Haiti raises concern regarding the status of the country’s democracy, leaving the international community to evaluate their possible role in the Caribbean nation’s governance crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put informal settlements, and the policy failures that they represent, back in the spotlight. Immediate strategies to combat the virus in slums have been deployed throughout Latin America, which includes five of the countries—Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina—that have suffered the most COVID-19-related deaths per capita. However, the strong regional impact from COVID-19 calls for differentiated governance and policy response.
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.
The Salvadoran president has skillfully wielded social media, especially Twitter, to control the country’s narrative, earning him an almost 90 percent approval rating.
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.
President Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party won more than two-thirds of the votes in El Salvador’s February 28 legislative elections. The consolidation of power puts democratic processes and counterbalances to the country’s executive branch at risk.
Both the positive aspects and the limits of Chile’s relationship with China merit further attention by other nations in the Western Hemisphere, both in terms of how to achieve benefits from engaging with China through strong, transparent institutions and what to guard against.
This article is the second in a two-part series on Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism discussing the pretextual nature of Cuba’s inclusion on the list and the legal aspects of political fugitives in Cuba.
Amid a flurry of recent gang violence in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, a recent New York Times article argued that the Biden administration has an opportunity to decrease the flow of weapons across the southern border by passing legislation requiring universal background checks.
Advocates should embrace a two-pronged approach, pushing the envelope at the domestic level while reinforcing well-established rights through international institutions. Rather than weighing in on contested issues and provoking a nationalist backlash, the Inter-American Court and the IACHR should instead reinforce rights that are widely approved by the public but neglected by governments.
