Given Latin America and the Caribbean’s vulnerability to climate change, its leaders are closely watching how the incoming Biden administration will recalibrate the United States’ environmental policy to see whether the Western Hemisphere will make diplomacy and multilateralism great again.
On Thursday, December 11, Argentines took to the streets after the country’s Parliament passed an abortion bill in a 131 to 117 vote that allows for abortions up to 14 weeks after conception. The legislation will be debated in the Senate on December 29. If the new abortion legislation passes into law, Argentina will join just Cuba and Uruguay as among the few places in the region where women can undergo abortions regardless of the circumstances.
The scattered, discontented majority in Venezuela is subdued by a minority regime, organized to overwhelm Twitter with a “supra-reality” as a disinformation strategy.
Violence and impunity have proved pervasive barriers to security and justice in Mexico. Action from the IACHR and a recent Netflix documentary have raised these issues to the Mexican government.
On December 6, Venezuela held its legislative elections, resulting in the Maduro regime seizing control over the incoming National Assembly, which had long been viewed as the final vestige of democratic power in Venezuela. It remains to be seen what will happen next with Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan opposition. While most of Guaidó’s cabinet is already in exile, Guiadó has vowed to remain in Venezuela, despite some calls from within the opposition to dissolve the interim-government.
The Netflix approach, a procurement mechanism previously used by Australia to fight Hepatitis C, could decrease vaccine prices while simultaneously offering incentives to allocate the scarce product in an efficient manner and avoid the temptation of high-income countries to stockpile.
The Indigenous peoples’ march brought the issue of Indigenous land rights directly to the Surinamese government in 1976 with the slogan “Land rights are human rights.” However, 44 years later, Tribal communities are still fighting for recognition of their land rights.
The impacts left by Hurricane Iota on the islands of San Andrés and Providencia has added to the sense of dread and abandonment by the central government long felt by the residents of the archipelago. Although the government’s response to the crisis has been swift, there is a sense that more could have been done to mitigate the risks from hurricanes and extreme weather caused by climate change.
After a week-long hunger strike, Cuban police forcibly removed 14 members of the Movimiento San Isidro (MSI)—a group of artists, academics, journalists, and activists—protesting the jailing of Denis Solís, an MSI member and Cuban rapper, who was serving an eight-month sentence on charges of contempt.
The doctor’s orders are now calling for investigations into cases of human rights violations committed during the citizen protests, the suspension of the selection of members of the Constitutional Court until the next Congress is seated in July 2021, and international monitoring and dialogue between stakeholders who are maintaining the current, fragile stability.
