The Americas Blog

Social, political and economic analysis of the Western Hemisphere.

01/06/2023

Latin America is increasingly united around one goal: the urgency of regional integration that can lead to far greater resiliency and autonomy from US influence.

Latin America’s regional integration promises to make the region more resilient to pandemics, extreme weather, and geopolitical turmoil.

02/23/2022

The United Electrical Workers (UE) and Frente Auténtico del Trabajo, both independent union federations — one in the US, the other in — have worked in solidarity for decades. Dan Beeton reviews a new e-book by the UE’s former director of international affairs, Robin Alexander, that recounts the history.

A review of International Solidarity in Action: The Relationship Between the United Electrical Workers (UE) and Frente Auténtico del Trabajo, by Robin Alexander

02/09/2022

What kind of economy is the administration inheriting in following 12 years of National Party rule? Simon Elliott, Brett Heinz, and Kevin Cashman look at important indicators including economic growth, income inequality, and poverty, which generally increased under Honduras's post-coup governments after trending downward in the pre-coup era. Poverty was below 60% during most of the 2006–2009 pre-coup government, but did not fall below 60% again until 2019. It rose to over 73% in 2021 with COVID.

This post looks at the evolving social and economic situations in Honduras.

11/24/2021

Andrés Arauz and Kevin Cashman have an update on how countries are using Special Drawing Rights allocated by the IMF as part of a . "Armenia, South Sudan, Ukraine and exchanged over half of their for hard currency," they note, and "Many countries are transferring or onlending the SDR equivalent amounts to government budgets."

This post analyzes SDR holdings as reported by the IMF at the end of September and compares them to previous months’ reports.

11/23/2021

With 's presidential elections happening, "it is imperative to consider the historical implications of the current constitution and the structural changes a new constitution could bring," Annee Lorentzen writes for The Americas Blog.

The winner of Sunday’s presidential elections -- and the subsequent second round -- will largely determine how impactful a new constitution could be, as it would be enacted during their time in office

11/09/2021

The release of a report looking into president "will only increase calls for a complete investigation — an investigation that would likely expand to Mr. Lasso’s family and inner circle," Andrés Arauz writes at The Americas Blog.

Aside from the ethics and the universal discussion around tax havens, the Commission’s report centers around a critical element: did Mr. Lasso break the law, known as the Ethical Agreement Law, which prohibits candidates and public officials from owning, directly or indirectly, assets or holdings ...

09/02/2021

: "If it turns out that any of those involved in the assassination [of ] were already the target of US law enforcement, this investigation has the chance to blowback on the US in really negative ways," said CEPR's Jake Johnston.

The head of the presidential guard in Haiti is a suspect in a U.S. investigation into a massive drug shipment in Haiti in 2015, as well as gun trafficking. But Dimitri Herard was never charged with a crime. Instead, he won promotion and quickly rose up the police ranks. Now he is a suspect in the Ju...

08/30/2021

The findings of ..."are likely to reignite calls for an investigation into the role that the played in delegitimizing the 2019 elections in and in helping to pave the way for the November 2019 coup d’état," 's Guillaume Long writes.

A new report finds that the OAS’s flawed claims were not just used to justify the forced removal of Evo Morales, but that they also served to justify the criminalization of electoral officials in Bolivia.

07/01/2021

"Biden’s declared intention to break with Trump-era policies and...bring back democracy and as driving forces of US foreign policy suddenly appear incompatible with the current status quo in ," Guillaume Long and Lola Allen write.

The protests that erupted across Colombia in April 2021 were detonated by a tax reform bill presented by President Iván Duque. Duque claimed his proposal would raise 23.4 trillion pesos (6.4 billion dollars), which would help reduce Colombia’s fiscal deficit (set to reach 8.6 percent of GDP in 20...

03/30/2021

In recent testimony, SOUTHCOM commander Craig Faller expressed desire to “be the good guys” in . ’s Brett Heinz highlights where Faller’s testimony is misleading and how it furthers a Cold War-era framing of great power competition to justify high levels of US defense spending. Read the latest here.

In testimony earlier this month, Admiral Craig S. Faller told Congress: “This Hemisphere in which we live is under assault.… We are losing our positional advantage in this Hemisphere and immediate action is needed to reverse this trend.” Faller was appointed commander of the US Southern Comman...

03/24/2021

Senior Colombian government officials are inserting themselves in ’s elections by promoting a smear campaign against Andrés Arauz ahead of the upcoming second-round vote. Read the latest The Americas Blog post by Jeremy Ross and Alex Main.

Just months after interfering in the US elections, the same political forces in Colombia are now attempting to affect the outcome of Ecuador’s presidential contest.

01/19/2021

"The government’s inability to manage the pandemic along with a renewed push to return to austerity together mean that could soon enter a severe economic, humanitarian, social, and political crisis," writes CEPR’s Jeremy Ross.

Economic policy “solutions” that Brazil's Bolsonaro and Guedes are determined to implement are no cause for optimism.

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