The Americas Quarterly Podcast

Latin America is the world’s most vulnerable region to cyberattacks, according to one study, and has suffered several dramatic hacks recently in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere. In this episode, Randy Pestana, Associate Director of Cyber Policy Program at Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, Florida International University, tells the stories of some of the region's biggest attacks in recent years and explains why some countries are particularly vulnerable, who is responsible for the attacks and what governments, companies and individuals can and should do to protect themselves. 

Bernardo Arévalo, an academic, former diplomat, and son of a famed revolutionary president surprisingly made it to Guatemala's election runoff, upsetting the country's ruling elites. What could happen next? Is his candidacy in jeopardy? Who makes up the group that Guatemalans refer to as the 'pacto de corruptos' trying to undermine the nation's democracy? Is the U.S. using its influence to push for free and fair elections in Guatemala? In this conversation, former ambassador Stephen McFarland discusses how power operates in the country where he lived and worked for years and an election he describes as the most surprising in recent Central American history.

Argentina's presidential elections will take place in October, but the country is now fully in campaign mode. In this episode, AQ's Brian Winter and María Esperanza Casullo discuss surprising recent developments, such as the ruling coalition's decision to back Economy Minister Sergio Massa as their candidate, and the apparent decline in support for the right-wing libertarian Javier Milei. They dissect the chances for the main contestants, and whether any of them would be able to rescue Argentina from its long stretch of economic troubles and take advantage of the country’s potential as a source of oil and gas, lithium, and other commodities. Casullo, who is based in the southern province of Neuquén, also describes what the election looks like outside the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

In the 2010s, corruption investigations dominated news headlines in Latin America, from Lava Jato in Brazil to La Línea in Guatemala. Nowadays, prosecutors, activists and journalists across the region continue their work of holding powerful politicians and business leaders to account, but they face a more difficult environment. That's the conclusion of the fifth edition of the Capacity to Combat Corruption (CCC) Index, produced by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and Control Risks. In this episode, Geert Aalbers, a partner at Control Risks, explores some of the reasons behind these challenges and discusses the delicate status of anti-corruption efforts in places like Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala. Aalbers also explains why countries like Uruguay, Chile and Costa continue to rank high on the index and describes how Panama and the Dominican Republic improved their scores. 

It’s been a mixed bag so far for Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after six months back in office, with a better than expected economy, but a tough relationship with the conservative Congress. In this episode, Brian Winter and political analyst Thomas Traumann discuss why economists have increased their Brazil GDP growth forecasts since the year started, what to expect from economic policy moving forward and why, in Traumann's opinion, environmental policy will be the key battleground for the Lula administration. Traumann is a journalist and independent consultant. He worked as a minister in the Dilma Rousseff government (2011-2016) and maintains contacts with a variety of political voices across the ideological spectrum.

Global supply chains have become much more fluid in the past year, and some of this itinerant money is making its way to Latin America. Mexico has benefitted, but how have other countries, such as Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil fared? In this episode, Shannon K. O'Neil, author of The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter, discusses Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policies, what industries and countries hold most potential when it comes to trade and nearshoring, what the challenges are for further progress and what the U.S. could do to encourage more investments.

The Colombian political world has been shaken by the eruption of a scandal that led the country's attorney general to launch an investigation into reports of alleged illegal financing of President Gustavo Petro's election campaign. In this episode, Laura Lizarazo, a senior analyst at Control Risks, evaluates the consequences of this to Petro's leadership and his proposed reforms to healthcare, labor laws and more. She also takes stock of changes to Colombia's energy sector, discusses the challenges to paz total and assesses the state of Colombia's economy more broadly.

The race to replace President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico is starting to heat up. While his party, Morena, is in good position to win, a competition has begun for who its candidate will be. In this episode, political scientist Carlos Bravo Regidor analyzes the stakes, the favorites, the state of the opposition and what it all mean for Latin America’s second-largest economy. He also discusses what he expects from AMLO, as the president in known, in his last 18 months in office.

It’s been two decades since China started to trade and invest heavily in Latin America, and in that time, the terms of the relationship have changed.  There has been a move into clean energy and more long-term investments in infrastructure, including electrical grids. In this episode, Brian Winter and Rebecca Ray look at where the relationship is at and where it’s headed. They discuss Chinese and Latin American goals, what the latest numbers on trade and investment mean, as well as potential stumbling blocks for the development of the partnership. Ray is Senior Academic Researcher at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. She produces the annual China-Latin America Economic Bulletin series and the China’s Overseas Development Finance Database.

Migration in the Americas is not a new story, but it is evolving fast. Countries that used to be senders of migrants are now also becoming recipients – Chile, Peru, Colombia, Brazil. Traditionally Latin America has had mostly welcoming policies towards migrants, but there are signs that could change in some countries. In the episode, AQ's Brian Winter speaks with Andrew Seele, President of the Migration Policy Institute, about migration trends and the countries where this has become a politically salient issue. Seele argues that there has been a hardening of positions, but there have also been successful attempts at integration.