Last Friday, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced he would not seek reelection, leaving the country’s wide-open presidential race even more uncertain. Both the Peronist camp and the center-right opposition are now without a clear candidate, but whoever becomes Argentina’s next president will have their work cut out for them.
Ahead of Thailand’s election, Pheu Thai, the country’s main opposition party, is gaining momentum as it looks to end nearly a decade of military-backed rule. But while a clear margin of victory would limit the military-backed regime’s ability to remain in power by legal means, it could prompt another coup or a judicial intervention.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s appointment of Gen. Henry Sanabria as the national police chief last August was meant to start a new chapter in the country’s policing. Sanabria was tapped to help usher in an era of enlightened public safety under the progressive Petro. But the script didn’t unfold as expected.
With roughly a year to go before general elections, Panamanians are frustrated with the country’s current conditions and skeptical of the major political parties’ ability to deliver change. While domestic issues are dominating debates, the election’s outcome will also have major implications for Latin America and the U.S.
An opposition victory in Turkey’s elections on May 14 could open a window of opportunity to build a friendlier relationship between Turkey and its partners in NATO and the EU. Yet when it comes to Ankara’s relationship with the EU, there is another election this May that could prove as decisive: Greece’s elections on May 21.
Along the path of Uganda’s EACOP oil pipeline project, farmers claim they were strong-armed into signing inadequate compensation agreements for their land, while oil companies tout economic progress and downplay allegations of misconduct. With development set to begin, the need to resolve these tensions is growing more urgent.
Tunisian opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi was arrested last week and remains in detention, as part of an ongoing crackdown against critics of President Kais Saied. Ghannouchi’s arrest and Saied’s clampdown on political freedoms have major implications for Tunisia’s domestic affairs as well as its foreign relations.
Sudan has been gripped by violence since fighting broke out just over a week ago between rival military factions vying for control in Khartoum. With the situation deteriorating, the plight of civilians has been in the spotlight, but protective infrastructure is scarce. For Sudanese civilians, the only option has been “self-protection.”
More than a decade since he came to power, Senegalese President Macky Sall is viewed as aloof and distant by the same citizens who propelled him to victory in 2012. He is now rumored to be considering a third-term bid, despite deepening social tensions and protests denouncing corruption, the high cost of living and human rights abuses.
For Tunisia’s population, water shortages are only the latest addition to a broader array of difficulties, including mounting inflation and a collapsing currency. Many Tunisians are now turning against President Kais Saied’s authoritarian power grab, and the sight of dry water taps is fueling further discontent.
More than 300 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in the week since intra-regime fighting among Sudan’s military rulers broke out in Khartoum. In addition to creating a humanitarian crisis in Khartoum, the conflict now risks drawing in regional actors, with potential fallout for neighboring states.
A week of fighting in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, has left more than 300 people dead and thousands more injured. The violence is now spreading to other parts of the country, raising fears of a wider conflict that could destabilize the already delicate Horn of Africa region.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric is anxious to convince voters he is serious about combatting a surge in violent crime, but his administration is divided over how to tackle it. After three police officers were slain in a span of 23 days since mid-March, Boric is now facing a political backlash that has sidetracked his domestic agenda.
Powered by intense opposition to a law that would require Dutch farmers to severely cut their nitrogen emissions, the populist Farmer’s Citizens Movement has suddenly become the most popular party in the Netherlands. It’s a taste of things to come as democracies seek to enact measures to protect the environment.
For years, Russia analysts have tried to make sense of President Vladimir Putin’s rule by reaching for comparisons with key moments in Russian history. Yet a more useful approach than looking to Russian history would be to compare the Putin regime with similar regimes over the past 70 years in Egypt, Pakistan and Yemen.
In early March, former Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was convicted of treason and sentenced to 27 years in prison, preventing him from challenging Prime Minister Hun Sen in elections scheduled for July. Kem Sokha’s legal persecution has laid bare Hun Sen’s desire to remove any and all threats to his grip on power.
Friction between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church is not new. But tense relations reached boiling point during Easter celebrations last week with further arrests in Ortega’s latest brazen crackdown, putting the devout in the middle of a power struggle between two mighty forces.