Last week, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa formally declared that the country is in a state of “internal armed conflict” against criminal gangs. But Ecuador’s security crisis is not internal at all. Regional and global trends have directly contributed to causing it, and its impact also extends beyond the country’s borders.
One year ago, Brazil experienced what looked its own version of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection in Washington. Since then, though, the two countries, whose political dramas had momentarily converged, moved in completely different directions. Today, Brazilian democracy appears to have stabilized. American democracy has not.
Of Latin America’s six presidential elections scheduled for 2024, the incumbent party is currently favored in four. Rather than a clear break in the region’s anti-incumbent trend, however, this year’s elections will be exceptions that prove the rule. Three of them offer examples of the challenges that democracy faces in the hemisphere.
