The Americas Archive

On the sidelines of the leaders’ summit for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, earlier this month in Vietnam, the remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—the mega-regional free trade pact that includes Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei—agreed on most elements of a deal to salvage it in the form of a new, so-called TPP-11. In late January, in one of the first moves after taking office as U.S. president, Donald Trump followed through on his campaign promise to withdraw the United States from what had been Barack Obama’s signature economic achievement […]

On Nov. 10, Australia and Peru concluded a free trade agreement while leaders of both countries were attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam. Free trade negotiations between the two countries began in May following the U.S. decision to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the major multilateral free trade deal that involved 11 other Pacific Rim countries, including Australia and Peru. In an email interview, John Edwards, a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute and adjunct professor with the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University, explains why Australia and Peru moved forward with their own free trade […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about education policy in various countries around the world. In late September, Brazil’s Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of allowing religious education in public schools to be taught by people promoting their own faith, testing the country’s secular public education system. In an email interview, Simon Schwartzman, a Brazilian social scientist who has written extensively on the country’s education system and who serves on the board of the Institute for the Study of Labor and Society (IETS) in Rio de Janeiro, discusses the Supreme Court’s decision, the state of […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Omar H. Rahman, discuss what German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s precarious position in Berlin means for the European Union and the prospects for French President Emmanuel Macron’s own reform agenda. For the Report, James Bargent talks with Andrew Green about Colombia’s other peace process with the ELN guerrilla group and why it might prove even more challenging than the talks that recently ended the long war with the FARC insurgency. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines, as well as what you’ve […]

MEDELLIN, Colombia—The seven men arrived in the tiny hamlet of Carra, in the western Colombian state of Choco, just as darkness was falling on the evening of March 25. They were dressed in camouflage and were armed with rifles. According to witnesses, on their arms they wore bands bearing three letters: ELN, which stands for Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional, the National Liberation Army. Witnesses described how they shouted, threatened, smashed up boats and kicked over tables. They called the terrified residents “paracos”—slang for paramilitaries—as they searched the houses. And then they raised their rifles and opened fire. Four people died […]

After President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership in January, the trade deal’s remaining members resolved to carry on without their biggest partner. Earlier this month, at a meeting in Vietnam, they agreed to new core terms, despite the last minute vacillation by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. While Canada’s continued hang-ups about the TPP have stalled a final agreement, many experts believe the U.S. departure from the deal may actually put Canada in a better position than before. In an email interview, Dan Ciuriak, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation […]

Bolivian President Evo Morales is forging ahead with a plan to get around constitutional limits to stand for a fourth term in 2019, despite losing a February 2016 referendum on whether he could run again. His party, the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, presented a petition to Bolivia’s elected constitutional tribunal in late September requesting that four articles of the country’s constitution be declared “inapplicable,” allowing Morales to stand for president indefinitely. The MAS also wants the court to scrap term limits for other elected officials, including governors, mayors and members of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, Bolivia’s legislature. A decision […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about press freedom and safety in various countries around the world. In 2017, Jamaica was ranked eighth in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, sandwiched between the likes of Switzerland and Belgium, and well ahead of the United States, which was ranked 43rd. But Jamaica’s media landscape was not always so free, and the island has made major strides in recent years. In an email interview, Margaux Ewen, advocacy and communications director at Reporters Without Borders North America, explains what is behind the progress for press freedom in Jamaica […]

The Venezuelan opposition almost had a moment to rejoice last week. On Thursday, the European Parliament awarded one of the world’s most prestigious human rights prizes, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to the “democratic opposition in Venezuela.” All the declarations of support and the standing ovations, however, were drowned out by the reality on the ground in Venezuela, where the temporarily united pro-democracy coalition has started unraveling. The renewed turbulence among the forces fighting the relentless usurpation of power by President Nicolas Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV, comes as one more piece of […]

For the first time in Mexico’s modern democratic history, independent candidates without a party affiliation will be able to compete in a presidential election next year. The first three presidential races since 2000, when Mexico’s democracy was consolidated, required candidates to represent a registered political party. A handful of presidential hopefuls with diverse political credentials and personal backgrounds met the mid-October deadline to register independent candidacies. They now aim to alter the political dynamics ahead of Mexico’s 2018 election, with potentially major repercussions for the country over the next six years. Mexican citizens warmly welcomed the ratification of the electoral […]