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Articles on Latin America

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Do Argentinians have the patience for their new president’s shock therapy? Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EPA

Javier Milei: Argentina’s new president presses ahead with economic ‘shock therapy’ as social unrest grows

Argentina is already feeling the sting of its new president’s policies – but Javier Milei is pressing ahead with ever-more radical plans to overhaul the economy.
Protesters in El Salvador declare ‘Yes to democracy. No to authoritarianism’ during a demonstration on Jan. 14, 2024. PHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images

In the face of severe challenges, democracy is under stress – but still supported – across Latin America and the Caribbean

A survey of people across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean found widespread concern over the economy and crime.
A ceremony to punish people for heresy, called an ‘auto da fe,’ in the town of San Bartolome Otzolotepec, in present-day Mexico. Museo Nacional de Arte/Wikimedia Commons

Latin America’s colonial period was far less Catholic than it might seem − despite the Inquisition’s attempts to police religion

Conversion was often a violent affair, but that doesn’t mean it was 100% successful. Colonial Latin America was home to many different spiritual traditions from Indigenous, African and Asian cultures.
A priest and Catholic worshippers pray in front of an image of ‘Sangre de Cristo,’ burned in a fire on July 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua. Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images

Nicaragua released imprisoned priests, but repression is unlikely to relent – and the Catholic Church remains a target

When President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2006, church figures supported him. Violent repression after the 2018 protests has soured the relationship and made clergy targets for intimidation.
Special Forces soldiers in action: Ecuador is hostage to organised crime, amid a culture of violence rooted in the foundations of a society with a fragile economy and political and legal systems compromised by corruption. AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa

How Ecuador went from an ‘island of peace’ to one of the world’s most violent countries

Just five years ago, Ecuador was still considered one of the safest countries in Latin America. Now, there is a brutal war playing out between criminal gangs and the state.
Fireworks light the sky while the portraits of persons who were disappeared and executed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet are displayed on the stands of the National Stadium during a vigil marking the 50th anniversary of the 1973 military coup in Santiago, Chile on Sept. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Half a century later, the military junta still haunts Chile

Despite hosting the 2023 Pan American Games and electing a president with a progressive agenda, Chile continues to grapple with entrenched economic inequality.
Aerial view of a waterfall in the valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, where an historic lawsuit was won by a river in 2011. Curioso.Photography/Shutterstock

‘Legal animism’: when a river or even nature itself goes to court

Some countries have managed to elevate nature and ecosystems to the status of legal entities. Do these innovations really help to protect the environment?
Claudia Sheinbaum, the favorite to become Mexico’s first female president. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

Mexico will soon elect its first female president – but that landmark masks an uneven march toward women’s rights

Women represent half of Mexico’s Congress and hold key positions in politics and the judiciary. But the country is still dogged by high rates of femicide.

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