Peru now has its sixth president in just five years. An expert on Latin American politics explores the country’s political instability and what happens next.
Migrants from Latin America are traveling through Mexico as part of a caravan heading to the U.S.
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The US is convening Latin American countries in Los Angeles this week to discuss major regional issues. An expert explains 3 key things to know about one top concern – migration.
On the campaign trail, Pedro Castillo often wore a straw-palm hat typical of Peru’s rural Cajamarca region, where he is from.
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Castillo is a farmer and teacher who has never held national office. Peru is a nation in political turmoil, with the world’s worst COVID-19 death rate. Can this unlikely leader lead it through crisis?
Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Ayahualtempa, Mexico, on June 6, 2021.
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Thirty-six candidates were murdered since campaigning began in Mexico last September, including numerous members of the president’s own Morena party.
Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele promised voters change. Instead, he seems to be reviving El Salvador’s authoritarian past.
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El Salvador ‘is inching back toward its authoritarian past’ after President Nayib Bukele fired five supreme court justices and the attorney general – essentially the only checks on his power.
Brazilian politicians’ newfound embrace of Blackness leaves some of their Afro-Brazilian constituents skeptical.
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A race-changing scandal raises suspicion about the motivations of 4,580 newly elected city council members and mayors who only recently began to identify as Black.
Riot police face off against protesters in Lima, Peru, Nov. 12, 2020.
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After becoming Peru’s third president in six days, Francisco Sagasti must both lead the country into elections and build a better democracy. It’s a test Peruvian leaders largely failed 20 years ago.
Art featuring the slain Rio politician Marielle Franco, whose 2018 murder remains unsolved.
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The 2018 murder of Rio city councilwoman Marielle Franco inspired record numbers of Black women to get involved in politics. Winning proved harder – but it isn’t the only point of their campaigns.
Protesters against the government of Peru’s interim president Manuel Merino took to the streets of Lima in November 2020.
EPA-EFE/Paolo Aguilar
After a year of unrest Chileans voted decisively on Oct. 25 to replace their constitution, a relic of the military dictator Pinochet. Civilians, half of them women, will write the new constitution.
‘Chile Decides’ whether to change its military dictatorship-era constitution at a popular referendum on Oct. 25.
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On Oct. 25 Chile will decide whether to replace its dictatorship-era constitution with a new one written wholly by the Chilean people. The vote shows how protests can change the course of a nation.
Luis Arce (centre) celebrates after an exit poll put him as victor in Bolivia’s presidential election.
EPA
Latin American history shows that sending out troops to quell unrest is a perilous move even in strong democracies. Usually, protesters die. Sometimes, the end result is authoritarianism rule.
The ‘Christ of the Pacific’ statue in Lima has caused controversy in Peru because of its financing by a graft-tainted Brazilian construction company. Both religion and corruption loomed large in Peru’s 2020 legislative elections.
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After a bribery scandal that took down four presidents and led Congress to dissolve, some Peruvians are putting their faith in an austere religion called the Israelites of the New Universal Pact.
A demonstrator protesting new austerity measures in Ecuador confronts armed police officers during clashes in Quito, Ecuador, Oct. 11, 2019.
AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa
All those democracy protests in South America may be having some unintended consequences.
A supporter of former Bolivian president Evo Morales tells a police officer to respect the nation’s indigenous people, in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 12, 2019.
AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko
Evo Morales is at least the ninth Bolivian president to by forced out of office by a mass uprising. But even in exile he remains by far the most popular politician in the country.
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera decrees a state of emergency to restore public order after a day of violent protest, Oct.19, 2019.
Sebastián Rodríguez/Prensa Presidencia
As protests raged across Chile last month, President Piñera repeatedly addressed the nation. Researchers fed his speeches into an AI system to assess the emotions behind his words.
Supporters of former Bolivian president Evo Morales rally with indigenous flags outside the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 18, 2019.
AP Photo/Juan Karita
Indigenous people, symbols and religious practices filled the halls of power in Bolivia during Evo Morales’ 14-year tenure. Now a new conservative Christian leader seems to be erasing that legacy.
Argentina’s president-elect, Alberto Fernández (right), with his running mate, former president and first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Reuters/Agustin Marcarian
Argentina has voted for change. Alberto Fernández, a 60-year-old lawyer, defeated President Mauricio Macri with a campaign emphasizing economic recovery, social inclusion and national unity.