A key aspect of Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s ambitious “Total Peace” plan is resuming negotiations with the largest remaining rebel group in Colombia—the ELN. Warming ties between Colombia and Venezuela remove one obstacle to that objective. But other remaining challenges mean that progress will be slow and difficult.
Given the threat that Jair Bolsonaro represented to the democracy of Latin America’s largest country, the whole region should feel some relief that Lula da Silva defeated him in Brazil’s presidential election. And yet, there are many pro-democracy activists in Latin America for whom Lula returning to office is a cause for anxiety.
Brazilians go to the polls Sunday in a presidential election pitting left-wing former President Inacio Luiz “Lula” da Silva against the far-right incumbent, President Jair Bolsonaro. The contest has become a poster child of the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative, given Bolsonaro’s populist, authoritarian brand of politics.
Nigeria’s worst flooding in at least a decade has overrun hundreds of communities across the country. Sporadic floods have been occurring locally for months, but they intensified in September and have since spread. The flooding is expected to end in the coming weeks, but its impact will take much longer to repair.
In the upcoming midterm U.S. congressional elections, Republicans are expected to regain control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, which would put them in position to undermine U.S. efforts to support Ukraine militarily. However, concerns that Republicans will do so are unfounded for three reasons.
Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s new prime minister and the first woman to hold the position on Friday, ushering in a new era in which she will be the conductor of Italian politics’ cacophonous chorus. The drama already promises to be intense, even as the country braces itself for ferocious economic headwinds.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s selection of a new politburo at last week’s 20th party congress set the tone for the next five years and sent a message: that loyalty trumps competence, and security—in its many dimensions, for both Xi and China—must be a top priority. Two events at that congress also stood out as indicative of the trends taking shape under Xi’s rule.
The killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli military in May has been widely reported and denounced internationally and regionally. But there has been little international media and public attention paid to the broader problem of intimidation, threats and targeting faced by Palestinian journalists.
“The worst is yet to come.” That’s the message from the International Monetary Fund about what to expect in 2023. For Latin America, the IMF’s bad news about the year to come will add to a pile of years’ worth of other economic and political problems and will be critical to every political story in the region for the year to come.
The results of Brazil’s first-round presidential election were an unpleasant shock for the left, even if Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, or PT, finished first and remains the frontrunner against Jair Bolsonaro on Oct. 30. The PT is now a diminished political force, due as much to its own mistakes as the rise of the far right.
Liz Truss resigned as British prime minister on Thursday just 44 days after assuming office. Though she tried valiantly to hold on, she ultimately failed to reassure the markets or her Conservative Party MPs of her ability to end the political and economic chaos unleashed by the release of her government’s fiscal plan last month.
The focus on Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s political travails are understandable, but they have overshadowed one of the more significant policy developments from his presidency so far: a recently introduced stimulus package designed to promote flagging economic growth that backtracks on Castillo’s hard-left economic agenda.
EU leaders are gathered in Brussels, where they are locked in a heated discussion about Europe’s energy crisis. But as they try to hammer out an agreement, they’re also keeping a nervous eye on the protests brewing in France over inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, which could tip over into widespread civil unrest.
Last week, the Mexican government filed the second of two lawsuits against the firearms business in the U.S., claiming that a handful of gun shops and distributors knowingly and deliberately violate U.S. law. Could Mexico, where arms trafficked from the U.S. are a major contributor to violence, succeed where U.S. gun control advocates have failed?
With the United Nations COP 27 Climate Change Conference set to take place in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh beginning on Nov. 6, many observers have raised concerns about the country’s human rights and environmental records and what this will mean for the conference as well as climate justice more broadly.
At the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech outlining his priorities heading into his almost certain third term, including his own concept of “national rejuvenation,” which goes hand in hand with a fight against internal and external enemies, both real and conceptual.
Kenyan President William Ruto’s inauspicious first month in office has seen several false starts, unforced errors and warning signs, confirming for some observers that the widespread popular disillusionment that drove voter turnout in August’s presidential election to its lowest level in 15 years was prescient.