South America Archive

On Sunday, Paraguayans picked a new president and vice president, along with every member in their country’s Congress. There was a lot at stake, starting with the credibility of the voting itself. Paraguay was mired in political turmoil last year after Congress considered expanding presidential term limits—a move that worried many people who had lived through Alfredo Stroessner’s 35-year dictatorship, which came to an end in a military coup in 1989. So the smooth electoral process on April 22, overseen by the Organization of American States and the European Union, should serve as reassurance, both to Paraguayans and to a […]

On April 9, Colombia’s government fired the head of the Colombia in Peace Fund, a $500 million, donor-financed entity tasked with supporting post-conflict programs tied to the country’s 2016 peace accord with the Marxist guerrilla group known as the FARC. The move came after donor countries, including Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, complained to the government about funding delays and a lack of transparency. The implementation of the Colombian peace agreement has faced a number of stumbling blocks so far. In an email interview, Adam Isacson, a senior associate for regional security policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, discusses […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about press freedom and safety in various countries around the world. On April 13, Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, announced that two Ecuadorian journalists and their driver had been killed by Marxist rebels, who kidnapped them near the border with Colombia late last month, where they were investigating rising crime. Moreno revealed that the rebels were associated with a dissident faction of Colombia’s demobilized FARC guerrillas. The episode has raised alarms over the state of press freedom and safety in Ecuador, which witnessed a decade of media restrictions and intimidation under […]

After six days of deliberation, a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last week declared Bolivia’s former president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, and defense minister, Carlos Sanchez Berzain, guilty under U.S. law of extrajudicial killings committed in Bolivia 15 years ago. Damages of $10 million were awarded to the case’s eight plaintiffs, who all lost family members during the 2003 security crackdown on protests in Bolivia over a proposed natural gas pipeline running to Chile. Both Sanchez de Lozada and Sanchez Berzain have been living in exile in the United States since they fled Bolivia after the violence in what became […]

U.S. President Donald Trump’s hostility to existing trade deals and his heavy-handed approach to long-standing partnerships has exasperated Latin America. No longer able to depend on smooth relations with Washington, various countries in the region are pursuing other alliances and sources of economic growth. The collection of articles below sheds light on the shifting trade strategies of Latin American leaders as they try to mitigate the danger posed by Trump’s unpredictability. Purchase this special report as a Kindle e-book.Diversifying Portfolios Trump’s Protectionism Has Mexico Looking South to Latin America for Trade For more than a year now, Mexico has been […]