The Americas Archive

Mexico, once viewed mainly as a country of transit for Central Americans fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, has increasingly become a destination, according to the United Nations. The number of Central Americans applying for asylum in Mexico increased from 3,400 in 2015 to 14,600 in 2017. Francesca Fontanini, the regional spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said that there were 14,000 applications in the first six months of 2018 alone. But for most Central Americans, Mexico really isn’t a country of destination. It’s a country of last resort. Between 400,000 and 500,000 Central Americans enter […]

Last week, the Maiquetia airport outside Caracas was the site of a remarkable event. On Monday, one after another, a series of Russian military aircraft landed in Venezuela. Most notably, the flock included two nuclear-capable, supersonic Tu-160 “White Swan” bombers, along with a passenger plane reportedly bringing about 100 Russian military personnel, and a large cargo plane possibly delivering military equipment. Just a few days earlier, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and received promises of a $6 billion aid package. Now, Putin was using Venezuela to send a powerful message to Washington. […]

Besides getting Mexico to pay for the wall, which continues to elude him, there were two things that U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to want most out of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. One was increased access to the Canadian market for American dairy farmers, and the other was an incentive to increase car production in the United States. He won on those things, though the latter could well turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. But he is undercutting any credit he might get for those victories with his fondness for tariffs. Indeed, if looking […]

In Donald Trump’s trade wars, U.S. tariffs on China were supposed to force a quick surrender, but retaliatory Chinese tariffs on imports from the U.S. have led to a tenuous truce. Find out more when you subscribe to World Politics Review (WPR). As widely expected, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping declared a truce in their trade war in early December. According to the White House statement after their meeting at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Xi committed to increase imports of American agricultural and energy products to reduce the bilateral trade deficit and to […]

A new report argues U.S. adversaries may go beyond the "gray zone" aggression of fracturing American alliances and deploy a strategy of rapidly inflicting unacceptable losses on U.S. and partner military forces. Is this vision of future conflict based on false strategic and political assumptions? Last week the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command released a new report entitled, “The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028.” The title might seem to suggest that the document would only interest die-hard military geeks. But despite its complex and arcane phrasing, the report is actually a fascinating window into how the Army sees […]

After over a decade in power, a leftist party is damaged by corruption allegations. A weakened economy and parlous public finances add to public disaffection. Mounting fears over street crime fuel a sense of crisis. Challengers on the right, promising a clean-up and a crackdown, capture public attention—and eventually the presidency. The same broad-strokes scenario has played out over the past 18 months across much of Latin America, notably in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. And with under a year until presidential and congressional elections in October 2019, a similar story—albeit with characteristic understatedness—is unfolding in Uruguay, the Southern Cone’s final […]

It’s easy to be discouraged these days by the state of progress on addressing climate change. This week’s United Nations climate change conference in Poland risks concluding without having made any meaningful progress, in part due to obstruction from the U.S. delegation. The failure would come at a bad time. In late November, the U.S. federal government released the fourth national climate assessment, a series of reports mandated by a 1990 statute called the Global Change Research Act. These blockbuster assessments, produced roughly every four years, comprise hundreds of pages of detailed analysis of climate change’s impact on various ecosystems, […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on immigration and integration policy around the world. Argentina is contending with a severe economic crisis, fostering a xenophobic backlash that has centered on the country's immigrant population. In a break from its long history of welcoming immigration, the current administration has introduced curbs on immigrants to Argentina. Argentina has long been a welcoming destination for generations of immigrants, but in recent years, xenophobic and discriminatory sentiments have risen in visibility amid a severe economic crisis. The administration of President Mauricio Macri has responded by placing some curbs on immigration […]

President Donald Trump has announced a number of trade deals this year, touting each one as the best, greatest, most wonderful agreement ever. Time after time, however, the reality fell far short of Trump’s hype, including the most recent announcement of an agreement with China. Indeed, the announced “agreements” with Europe, Japan and China merely began the process of negotiating. And far from replacing the “worst trade deal ever,” the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement mainly updates and tweaks the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. One thing none of these agreements accomplished was to get rid of the tit-for-tat tariffs […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and associate editor, Elliot Waldman, discuss the vacuum in global leadership at the G-20 summit and beyond. For the Report, Luisa Feline Freier talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about a new destination for African migrants: Latin America, where they are arriving in increasing numbers—and facing familiar challenges. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your inbox. The newsletter offers a free preview article every […]

President Sebastian Pinera’s administration in Chile is facing heavy criticism for its treatment of the country’s marginalized indigenous groups after security forces killed a young indigenous man in the southern Araucania region last month. Camilo Catrillanca, a 24-year-old Mapuche, was fatally shot on Nov. 14 by members of a heavily armed counterterrorism squad known as the “Jungle Commandos.” Four soldiers have been arrested in connection with the incident, which has prompted public protests across the country. In an interview with WPR, Jorge Contesse, a professor of international human rights law at Rutgers University, discusses the history of the Chilean government’s […]

In recent years, a combination of factors has converged to produce an unprecedented number of high-profile anti-corruption investigations around the world. From Brazil to South Korea, from the Panama Papers to the global FIFA scandals, publics across the globe have seen their worst suspicions confirmed, as daring investigative journalists and hard-charging prosecutors lay out case after case, revealing the details of pervasive malfeasance at the loftiest levels of power. At first glance, this is unquestionably a positive development for society as a whole, for the economies of the countries affected and for the global political environment. Corruption corrodes the moral […]

Images of perilous voyages across the Mediterranean Sea dominate the popular perception of African migration, but the reality is that many migrants’ journeys have nothing to do with Europe at all. In recent years, an increasing number of migrants have quietly built lives for themselves in South America. SAO PAULO—One day last May, fishermen working off the coast of Maranhao, a state innortheastern Brazil, came to the rescue of a rough-looking catamaran with a busted mast and a nonfunctioning motor. After towing the boat to safety, they realized it was carrying an unlikely group of passengers: 25 men from sub-Saharan […]

MEXICO CITY—Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was officially sworn in as Mexico’s new president on Dec. 1, but for many Mexicans, it seemed as if he had already taken office months ago, eager to shake things up. Near-daily press conferences on the steps of his Mexico City apartment building, promises of informal popular referendums on any number of policy issues, and a notably antagonistic stance toward both opposition forces and the media suggest a new era of uncertainty for Mexico. The veteran leftist, better known in Mexico by his initials “AMLO,” rode to a landslide victory in July’s election, vowing to […]

In September, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a long-anticipated law enacting reforms to the country’s justice system, which consistently ranks among the worst in the Western Hemisphere. The law aims to alleviate heavy caseloads for judges and reduce long wait times for cases to be resolved, but it fails to address many of the systemic issues plaguing the Bolivian judiciary. In an interview with WPR, Ramiro Orias, a La Paz-based lawyer and program officer for the Due Process of Law Foundation, discusses the new reform initiative and explains why its implementation so far does not inspire confidence. World Politics Review: […]