The Americas Quarterly Podcast

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.

From the outside looking in, it’s hard to understand what is happening in Venezuela these days. On the one hand Nicolás Maduro seems stronger than he’s been in years. The Venezuelan economy seems to have bottomed out, after years of terrible crisis. And the opposition is divided and struggling to connect with the Venezuelan people. On the other, the opposition and the Maduro government are back at the negotiating table and there is a sense that elections scheduled for 2024 might improve the political climate, even if those involved know that those elections won’t be free and fair. On this week's episode, AQ's Brian Winter spoke to The Washington Post's Ana Vanessa Herrero about how Venezuelans are faring economically, how most people see the Maduro regime and the latest developments in the Venezuelan opposition as they prepare for primaries and elections.

Chile’s politics have been turned upside down once again, as an election last Sunday gave the political right almost full control over the writing of a new Constitution. A little more than a year ago, the country seemed to be undergoing a progressive transformation, after waves of protests, the arrival of a left-wing, young president, Gabriel Boric, and plans for what was supposed to be an expansive new Constitution. In this episode, political scientist Patricio Navia explains why the electorate’s mood seems to have shifted and what these developments mean for the political and economic future of Chile. Navia is a professor at both New York University and at Universidad Diego Portales, and a member of Americas Quarterly’s editorial board.

 What happens in Paraguayan politics matters not only to people who live there, but for the rest of the region and the world. It’s a member of Mercosur, at a time when that bloc’s future is in flux, and a key part of the rising strategic competition between the U.S. and China in the region — Paraguay remains one of a few nations who still recognize Taiwan. In recent elections, the country went against a regional wave of anti-incumbency sentiment by choosing a candidate of the ruling Colorado party, which has been in power for almost all of the past seven decades. In this episode, we do an overview of Paraguay, looking at the consequences of elections to the rest of Latin America, how it fits into the growing U.S.-China competition, and why Paraguayan voters bucked a 5-year-long regional trend by voting for more of the same. Our guest is Julieta Heduvan, a Paraguayan foreign policy analyst and author of Paraguay, Política Exterior e Integración Regional. 

The return of Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a potential game-changer for Latin America. No other leader in the region is as experienced and has such a large global profile. Lula is in a position to lead on key issues such as climate, regional trade integration and the growing confrontation between the U.S. and China. However, the path to an influential international role is full of obstacles. In this episode, Brian Winter and Oliver Stuenkel discuss what to expect on foreign policy from Lula's third term as president. In the process, they analyze the meaning and the consequences of Lula's recent comments about the war in Ukraine. 

In Guatemala, economic growth has done little to improve poverty and inequality. Violence continues to drive people to leave the country. Democracy is also in decline, as successive governments have undermined institutions, jailed journalists and forced independent prosecutors and judges into exile. In these conditions, one might expect candidates in upcoming presidential elections to stand for change. Yet the leading ones share similarities with the current president. What explains this? In this episode, investigative journalist Claudia Méndez Arriaza describes how elites control  the political and judicial systems in order to maintain power in their own hands. She also talks about hopes for change. Méndez Arriaza currently works with ConCriterio.

El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele's hard-line security policies have contributed to a decline in homicides and extortion in El Salvador, but at a very high cost to human rights and democratic freedoms. Despite that, many in the region see this as a model to emulate and are vowing to implement similar policies. Is Bukelismo the wave of the future throughout the region? How should those who disagree with Bukele's strategy react and provide an antidote within the boundaries of the rule of law? Tamara Taraciuk Broner, deputy Americas director at Human Rights Watch, answers these and other questions in this week's episode.