The Americas Quarterly Podcast

Latin America is the world's breadbasket. The region is now the source of more than 60% of the world’s soy, almost half its corn and more than a quarter of its beef. At the same time, about 28% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean don’t have enough food for themselves. On today’s podcast, we’ll explore Latin America’s so-called “food paradox.” Why is it that as the region produces and exports more food than ever, it’s also having trouble feeding its own people?  Our guest is Brandee Mchale, Head of Community Investing and Development at Citi and President of the Citi Foundation. She discusses what is causing this paradox and how the private sector is implicated in solving it. 

Although Democrats still lead among Latinos, Republicans have grown their share of support among that community in the last two elections. Looking ahead to the upcoming contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, we discuss some of the reasons for that shift, the long and little-known history of the Latino population in the United States and how economic and social issues shapes their political views. Marie Arana, author of LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority, argues that Democrats and politicians of all stripes are just beginning to understand them.

Claudia Sheinbaum will take office as Mexico's new president next week, on October 1, 2024. Often described as a technocrat, she also supports some of current President AMLO's more controversial policies, such as the judicial reform that was just approved. In this episode Vanessa Rubio, a professor at the London School of Economics and a former senator and deputy minister, shares what she expects from Sheinbaum's government. Rubio argues her administration will take shape as a new blend—one that could be deemed “techno-populist.”

Javier Milei has so far succeeded in making drastic changes to Argentina's economic policies. In this episode we evaluate what has worked and what hasn't, and who have been the winners and losers. Milei's deep spending cuts have produced in the first 5 months of 2024 a primary fiscal surplus of 1.1% of GDP and inflation is down to about 4% a month. Poverty however continues to rise and the IMF projects an economic contraction of 3,5% for 2024. What do these results amount to in terms of real improvement to the economy? What challenges remain? And what are the most likely political and economic outcomes of Milei's policies? Our guest is Eduardo Levy Yeyati, a former chief economist of the Central Bank of Argentina, and currently a professor at the School of Government at Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires. He also discusses the need for a revival of centrist politics in Latin America.

The entry of Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential race has completely transformed the election. In this episode we ask what we can expect from her Latin America policy were she to win in November. How do leaders in the region perceive her? What are her views on migration? What can we learn from her record as Vice-President, tasked with the challenging issue of addressing the factors that make people from Central America migrate to the U.S.? What is her stance on trade, and how might she handle the 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)? Our guest is Roberta S. Jacobson, a former State Department official. 

Since the election on July 28 Nicolás Maduro has unleashed a wave of repression not seen in Venezuela before. The question on everyone's mind is, what now? Will Venezuela move further down the path of a dictatorship, or is there some chance of a negotiated solution that might lead to a democratic transition? In this episode, Roberto Patiño, a civil society leader and a member of one of the opposition parties, discusses the opposition's strategies, evaluates the positions taken by Brazil, Colombia, the U.S. and Mexico and describes what he sees as cracks in the Maduro regime.

Ecuador’s young president Daniel Noboa is engaged in a tough battle with organized crime groups that paralyzed the country earlier this year. It’s been six months since that dramatic series of events. In this episode we take stock of what has happened since. How successfully has the government dealt with the security crisis? How valid are comparisons between Ecuador’s crackdown and that of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador? What has happened to Noboa’s popularity after it spiked following those attacks in January? And is Noboa considered the favorite to be reelected in Ecuador’s next presidential election, scheduled for February 2025? Or guest is Sebastian Hurtado, a political risk consultant based in Quito. 

Gustavo Petro is halfway through his presidential term in Colombia. The first leftist president in the country's modern history faced suspicion from the political and economic establishment from day 1. He’s used sweeping rhetoric to describe his plans for an economic overhaul, as well as his security initatives But in practice, Petro has struggled to translate his speeches into reality. In this episode we do a broad overview of Petro’s government so far, trying to separate rhetoric from reality, understand areas where his government has been successful and identify challenges and risks in his remaining two years in office. Our guest is Laura Lizarazo, Senior Analyst for the Andean region in Control Risks' Global Risk Analysis. 

Voters throughout Latin America are craving solutions to the spread of organized crime. In today's episode, we’ll look in detail at how Nayib Bukele executed the crackdown on gangs in El Salvador, analyze the extent to which the model has been adopted by some politicians around the region and evaluate why that is more difficult than it seems. Our guest is Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, a doctoral candidate in government at Harvard University. He just co-authored with Alberto Vergara, professor of political and social sciences at the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima, a piece entitled "The Bukele Model: Will It Spread?", published in the Journal of Democracy.

In Brazil, unemployment is at a record low, inflation is under control and growth projections are being revised up. However, the Lula administration is having a hard time moving forward with expected reforms, and financial markets are reacting negatively. This episode dissects the forces behind these trends. Why is Lula facing resistance in Congress? What are the economic debates under way inside the administration, and who is winning? How is Lula himself handling the challenges of a third term? Our guest is political analyst Celso Rocha de Barros, a sociologist, an analyst for Brazil's Central Bank, a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo, a podcaster at Revista Piauí and the author of PT, Uma História, a book about the history of Lula's Worker's Party.