South America Archive

While Donald Trump spent his first week as president of the United States rapidly upending ties with Mexico, undermining major free trade deals, and flaunting his protectionist ambitions, outgoing French President Francois Hollande visited Latin America, where he signed a host of bilateral agreements with Chile and Colombia. In Chile on Sunday, he warned against creeping protectionism, which he called the “worst response” that “impedes trade, hinders growth and even affects employment, including in countries that advocate for it and implement it.” The comment was an indirect jab at Trump and other populists on the rise, not least Marine Le […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the status of women’s rights and gender equality in various countries around the world. On New Year’s Eve, a man broke into a house in southeastern Brazil and shot and killed his ex-wife, their son and 10 other people, before taking his own life. The incident was a particularly shocking example of the rampant violence against women in Brazil, where disturbing cases of gender-based violence are a near-daily occurrence. In an email interview, Sueann Caulfield, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, discusses women’s rights in Brazil. […]

Venezuela’s roiling crisis just became far more complicated for the country’s political opposition and exponentially more unsettling for the United States. On Jan. 4, President Nicolas Maduro reshuffled his Cabinet and named a new vice president, Tareck El Aissami, a man who has reportedly helped forge back-channel links for Caracas to terrorists and drug traffickers. Until now, Washington has mostly treated Venezuela’s dramatic social and economic disintegration as a matter to be watched from afar: troubling, to be sure, but without very significant repercussions beyond its own borders or neighborhood. But the appointment of El Aissami means that the next […]

Venezuelans endured a particularly difficult year in 2016. Inflation skyrocketed; scarcities lingered; crime continued to soar; and the Venezuelan currency plummeted, albeit with a bit of a December rebound as OPEC cut oil production levels and the government eliminated its 100-bolivar note, its largest and most-used bill. The year offered little respite for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, too. The opposition, which has controlled the National Assembly for the past year, continued to press for a recall referendum, while many political actors abandoned the dialogue mediated by the Vatican. Beyond the country’s borders, conservative governments replaced leftist ones in Argentina and […]

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was in Argentina last month, where she gave her support to Argentina joining the Pacific Alliance trade bloc. It was her first visit to the country since President Mauricio Macri assumed office in 2015. In an email interview, Peter M. Siavelis, the director of the Latin American and Latino Studies program at Wake Forest University, discusses relations between Chile and Argentina. WPR: What are the main areas of cooperation between Chile and Argentina, and how have ties evolved over the past 10 years? Peter M. Siavelis: Chile has historically shared troubled relations with neighboring Argentina and […]