Last week, Honduras became the latest country to sever its diplomatic relations with Taiwan and instead recognize the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan has a choice: continue watching countries get picked off one by one due to Beijing’s checkbook diplomacy, or work with its allies to find a new way to relate to the world.
Mass protests broke out in Suriname last month after President Chan Santokhi decided to comply with the conditions of the government’s International Monetary Fund loan agreement—including a phasing out of state subsidies and the introduction of a new tax. The timing of the government’s austerity measures couldn’t have been worse.
Though Peru’s protests have entered a lull in recent weeks, its neighbors in the Andes are now experiencing their own political challenges, with the presidents of Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia having all hit their own rough patches in recent weeks. While the details of their political crises are different, two big trends connect them.
