The Americas Quarterly Podcast

Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, is going through a rocky period in his administration. There have been challenges on the security front. The handling of a proposed healthcare reform has created fissures in his cabinet, most significantly the departure of Alejandro Gaviria, a minister for education, who represented the technocratic faction of the cabinet. In the meantime, Petro's family members are being accused of corruption. A slower economy and inflation of above 13% a year are not helping – Petro’s popularity levels have fallen below 50%. Critics say the president could turn more intolerant of dissent moving forward. What Petro should we expect to see from now on? In this episode, we discuss this with journalist and policy analyst Mariana Palau. Palau also shares her analysis of the government’s paz total program and changes to energy policy.

More than 100,000 Mexicans protested last weekend against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's proposed changes to the country's electoral institute. The marches highlight the leader's relative vulnerability, despite his enduring approval ratings above 60%. Indeed, while the path may seem open for AMLO, as the president is known, to overhaul the country's electoral institute and bring to power a candidate of his choosing in the 2024 elections, there are judicial and political obstacles to AMLO's plans, argues this week's guest. In this episode, Luis Rubio, chairman of the think tank México Evalúa, discusses AMLO’s current situation and the consequences for Mexico’s economy, 2024 presidential elections, and its relationship with the United States. 

Organized crime has shaped people's lives in places like Mexico, Colombia and Brazil for decades. Recently, historically calmer places like Chile, Ecuador and even Uruguay have started seeing a rise in violence. What is driving this trend? In this episode, we do a broad overview of what's happening in transnational crime in the region and look at the individual dynamics in a number of countries. Our guest is Jeremy McDermott, one of the founders of InSight Crime, a think tank and publication that produces in-depth reports and analysis on international crime in Latin America.

Ecuador's conservative president Guillermo Lasso had his work cut out for him when he came into office in 2021. Elected partly because of a split in the Ecuadorean left, he had a weak mandate from the start. Last year, Lasso's government survived a major challenge from protests across the country. Now, another blow: voters defeated a referendum of constitutional amendments proposed by Lasso. Also, opposition candidates won municipal elections in key cities. Will Lasso finish his term? What does the crisis mean for Ecuador's economy? What do Ecuadorians want from their government?  In this episode, Brian Winter and political analyst Sebastián Hurtado assess the outlook in Ecuador and how it relates to events elsewhere in the region. 

In many ways, Uruguay is in a class of its own in Latin America. The country has the region's highest per capita income, its lowest poverty rate and among its lowest levels of inequality. Uruguay’s energy matrix is the region’s greenest and its economy is forecast to grow a healthy 3.6%. In a time of extreme polarization in Latin America and the rest of the world, its political culture is marked by civility. The new issue of Americas Quarterly is about Uruguay and what we can all learn from what is arguably Latin America’s greatest modern success story. In this episode, Brian Winter and journalist Martín Aguirre, head of El País, discuss how Uruguay got there, the limitations of this success and where the country is headed.

With the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for a third term in Brazil, the international community expects the country to curb the aggressive deforestation and criminal activity seen in the Amazon in recent years. The path ahead will require astute political negotiations, argues this week's guest, Ilona Szabó, the founder of Instituto Igarapé, a think tank focused on security and development. Ilona talks to us about her expectations for Brazil's incoming government, prospects for cooperation with other Amazon nations, such as Peru and Venezuela, and how the private sector should navigate investment in the region moving forward.

Peru's crisis continues to rage, with protests almost daily on the streets of Lima. A long history of issues explains the current situation. Peru’s economic model brought growth and reduced poverty, but fell short of truly enfranchising the country’s most marginalized; the country’s political parties are considered by many to be dysfunctional. In this episode, Brian Winter and Luis Miguel Castilla, a former finance minister of Peru between 2011 and 2014, analyze what brought the country here and assess what might come next. Castilla argues for a middle ground that addresses the legitimate demands of Peruvian society for greater social protections and rights without throwing out the economic framework that allowed Peru to grow almost uninterruptedly for decades.

 Following attacks on Brazil’s capital, the focus is on putting the country back together. The challenges are immense and wide-ranging: how to deal with security forces, parts of which supported insurrectionists, and how to handle Brazil’s growing radicalized groups, without overreacting and deepening division in an already polarized public. In this episode, Brian Winter and Patricia Campos Mello analyze the current political scenario, taking stock of the insurrection and looking ahead to what it means for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's governability, as well as the challenges he will face in other areas. Patricia, a journalist at Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s leading newspaper, is one of the country’s most respected reporters and an expert on the intersection of social media and politics, as well as Brazilian foreign affairs. 

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Mexico this week, at a time when the administration is facing a host of issues around Latin America. In this special episode, Brian Winter and the White House's Juan Gonzalez discuss a number of them: disputes with the Mexican government over energy policy; changes in the Venezuelan opposition; new developments in the relationship with Cuba; expectations for Brazil's incoming government and what, if anything, defines Biden's approach to Latin America today.

 In the last two decades, China has been a fundamental part of Latin America's economies. But the relationship is far from static. In today’s episode, we’ll look at how trade and investment flows changed in recent years and explore Beijing’s goals in the region. Our guest, Felipe Larraín, is a former two-time finance minister of Chile and a professor of economics at Universidad Católica de Chile. He evaluates recent trends and future trajectories for direct investment, official lending, trade and infrastructure; analyzes how the region's countries should, in his opinion, position themselves in the China-U.S. dispute; and discusses what has surprised him the most about Sino-Latin America ties.