The Americas Archive

Juan Guaido is on tour and looking presidential, visiting some of the more than 50 countries around the world that have recognized him as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president. In the past two weeks, the 36-year-old opposition leader made an official state visit to Colombia; met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London; addressed the European Parliament in Brussels and met with the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell; held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris; chatted with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European officials on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; […]

When towering political figures are suddenly ousted from power, what role will they play in their country’s future? That question is at the heart of what is unfolding in Bolivia some 10 weeks after former President Evo Morales resigned at the “suggestion” of the military amid mass public protests over a disputed presidential election. Morales, who fled into exile, first to Mexico and then Argentina, still insists he will lead the charge to topple the current, interim government. But he has faced a new and unexpected challenge to his political influence in Bolivia: an increasingly powerful current in his own […]

Not so long ago, nations of what was once called the Third World commonly looked to each other as prospective allies and partners, even extending their diplomatic ties across the oceans in order to advance their shared interests and protect themselves amid the dangers and complexities of the Cold War. The most famous moment of this period was undoubtedly the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in 1955, which brought together 29 Asian and African states with a combined population of 1.5 billion people and led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement. The momentum of Bandung was seriously blunted by the […]

When a wave of popular protests erupted across South America last year, a number of officials in the region claimed the unrest was being promoted by a “foreign hand.” No one argued that the protest movements, from Chile to Colombia, were created entirely or even ignited by outside powers, but leaders like Chilean President Sebastian Pinera suggested the possibility that someone outside the region was pouring fuel on the fire. Now, analysts at the U.S. State Department say they have reviewed the evidence and found that Russia was engaging in an incendiary and divisive disinformation campaign in Latin America waged […]

Voters in Peru will go to the polls to elect a new Congress this Sunday, after President Martin Vizcarra dissolved the previous one last October, arguing that opposition lawmakers were stymieing his anti-corruption reforms. Questions about the legal validity of Vizcarra’s move were settled last week, when the country’s top court narrowly ruled in the president’s favor. Vizcarra’s proposed reforms are popular in Peru, where four former presidents have been caught up in corruption scandals, including one, Alan Garcia, who shot himself in the head as police were trying to arrest him last year. Clearly, Peru’s electorate is fed up […]

For an interim president charged with overseeing Bolivia until new elections can be organized later this year, Jeanine Anez has acted like anything but the head of a caretaker government. Anez ascended to power unexpectedly last November following the ouster of then-President Evo Morales, who resigned at the “suggestion” of the country’s military amid a disputed election. Although she hails from a political party that managed to win a meager 4 percent of the popular vote in that October ballot, the right-wing former senator entered the presidential palace claiming a much bigger mandate. Flanked by two other outspoken opposition leaders, […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on prison conditions and criminal justice policy around the world. Dozens of inmates were killed in a wave of violence that swept across Honduran prisons in recent weeks, as rival gangs staged a series of bloody riots and retaliatory attacks against each other. The country’s penal system has a long history of gang-driven violence, but the recent killings represent a notable uptick, says Eric L. Olson, director of policy at the Seattle International Foundation and a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In an email interview […]

Among the many glaring pieces of unfinished business on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy ledger is Venezuela, where his campaign of “maximum pressure” on President Nicolas Maduro has failed. Venezuelans are preparing to mark the anniversary this month of a policy to oust Maduro that Trump launched with great fanfare and to high expectations nearly a year ago, when he declared Maduro’s presidency “illegitimate” and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate, interim president. At the time, Trump vowed to restore Venezuelan democracy, declaring that “all options are on the table.” Yet in a sign of where things now […]

The day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to impeach President Donald Trump last month, it voted overwhelmingly to approve his top trade priority: the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. The new trade deal will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect since 1994 and reviled in equal measure by Trump and many Democrats. Both Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi hailed the amended agreement—approved by 385 members of the House, with just 41 opposed—as a victory, and claimed credit for getting it done. Yet while there is much in the USMCA […]