In the Global South, the rush to create green economies risks leaving behind workers in the informal sector unless there are targeted efforts in education and job training—policies and talking points often left out of this new green rush. Chile, considered to be Latin America’s most developed economy, is a case in point.
Last week, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso used his constitutional authority to dissolve Congress, which had been trying to impeach him, and rule by decree until new elections are held for both the president and legislature. The move paralleled last year’s events in Peru, but the region’s response has been remarkably different.
Two of today’s biggest stories in the Western Hemisphere are eliciting starkly different responses: action on migration and inaction on Venezuela’s political and economic crises. Yet, with over 7 million Venezuelans having fled the country, it’s impossible to deal with the first challenge without taking the second more seriously.
Paraguay’s recent elections seemed to deliver a clean sweep to the long-dominant Colorado Party and its presidential candidate, Santiago Pena. Yet the apparent scale of the Colorado victory is deceptive. Pena is unlikely to enjoy a political honeymoon, nor have things entirely his way in terms of policymaking.
The Biden administration’s policy approach to the Middle East has come under recent criticism, and its Indo-Pacific policy and its role in Africa are up for debate. But a key region seems to be flying under the radar: Latin America. What is U.S. policy toward its own neighborhood? Does the U.S. even have a policy toward the region?
Chileans have once again dealt President Gabriel Boric a major setback, handing an overwhelming victory to the right-wing opposition in a vote for a new Constitutional Council. The outcome all but ensures that Chile’s next constitution will fail to bring about the progressive changes Boric and his supporters had envisioned.
Over the past two decades, Chile has been a place where businesses can operate in a regulatory environment shaped by steady and fair rules, while Argentina’s extensive regulations on prices, taxes and capital controls have made business difficult. However, when it comes to the lithium industry, that narrative has just been flipped.
It’s hard to imagine that Paraguay’s elections would have repercussions for China, or that Taiwan’s status would be of interest to Paraguayan voters. But that is exactly what just occurred Sunday, when one of the top issues in Paraguay’s elections was whether or not to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan and establish them with China.
In the U.S. and Europe, the rapid emergence of AI applications like ChatGPT has catalyzed a debate over their implications for the future of work. These concerns are far lower down on Latin America’s agenda. But in a region of stark economic inequality, AI threatens to exacerbate that divide and the political tensions that come with it.