On Sunday, May 5, Panamanians will cast their votes to determine the next president, as well as all members of the National Assembly. With a crowded field of candidates vying for the presidency, and only a single round to determine the victor, it promises to be a divided field. The elections are also taking place within a deeply polarized context, as Panama has been rocked by mass protests against the Cobre Panama Mining project, the country grapples with both a worsening water crisis, and the endemic challenge of corruption continues to loom large. In this special episode, Ryan C. Berg sits d ..read more

Looking across the hemisphere today, crime and insecurity appears on the march, with transnational criminal groups ascendant from Mexico to the Caribbean and southern cone. In light of this, it is important to reflect upon the history of U.S.-LAC security cooperation, where we have seen two major, multi-year security initiatives launched and concluded in the past 25 years, Plan Colombia, and the Mérida Initiative.   In this episode, Ryan C. Berg sits down with Dr. Paul Angelo, Director of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at National Defense University. Toge ..read more

Semiconductors form the building blocks of modern digital life. Chips govern everything from missile guidance systems to the headlights in your car, and the fight for the cutting edge of this technology appears to be entering a new phase. The United States, in partnership with allies like Japan and the Netherlands, has sought to cut off China’s access to advanced chip designs and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In response, China has announced a raft of export controls on minerals needed to produce modern chips, leveraging its dominance in the supply chain for mining and refining key mi ..read more

Haiti’s years-long political and security crisis entered a new phase last week when Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Haiti’s acting head of state since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, announced his resignation. Now, Haiti faces a period of profound uncertainty, with a serious power vacuum in government, ascendant criminal groups within striking distance of the halls of state power, and increasingly narrow prospects for a long-awaited international aid mission. In this episode, Christopher Hernandez-Roy sits down with Georges Fauriol, Senior Associate with the CSIS Americas Progra ..read more

On Sunday, February 4, Salvadorans headed to the polls to cast their votes in what virtually all analysts predicted would yield a landslide victory for incumbent President Nayib Bukele. However, official confirmation of Bukele’s victory was interrupted as the president declared the opposition was “pulverized” before the final transmission of the votes had been completed and announced by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. While this appears to have been resolved in Bukele’s favor, with the tribunal officially announcing Bukele’s victory with some 83 percent of the vote, this incident is but the la ..read more

Last month, Ecuador was rocked by a series of attacks carried out by members of criminal gangs. Over the course of two days of grueling violence, inmates rioted and took over prisons, gangs detonated car bombs across the country, and armed gunmen even stormed a live television broadcast in the violence-wracked city of Guayaquil. Then a few days later, the prosecutor investigating the attack on the TV station was gunned-down in cold blood. In response, newly-elected President Daniel Noboa has mobilized the armed forces and declared a state of “internal armed conflict” along with designating som ..read more

In the months since Bernardo Arevalo's upset victory in Guatemala's presidential elections, a small elite often referred as “the pact of the corrupt,” has tried to derail the president-elect from taking office. In response, the United States imposed visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalan congressmen and business leaders, while the Organization of American States, other international organizations and civil society raised mounting cries to respect the outcome of the election. For the time being, their tireless efforts appear to have paid off, with President Arrevalo taking office on January ..read more

En esta edición especial en español, Christopher Hernández-Roy, Director Adjunto y Senior Fellow del Programa sobre las Américas, conversa con Yaxys Cires, Director de Estrategia del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos sobre los resultados del último Examen Periódico Universal de Cuba del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de Naciones Unidas. Analizan la dicotomía entre la retórica gubernamental y la triste realidad de los derechos humanos en Cuba así como la profunda crisis económica que atraviesa la isla y cómo el régimen de Díaz-Canel ha respondido a estas presiones. In this special Span ..read more

Mexico's general election on June 2 of 2024 promises to be a seminal moment for Mexican politics and society on a number of fronts, in particular, the race has made headlines as a contest between two women, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum on one hand, and Senator Xóchitl Gálvez on the other, promising to herald Mexico’s first female president. But the race is also a test of the staying power of current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena Party, and whether its breakout success in 2018 can be translated into sustained influence over Mexican politics. In this special episode, Ryan ..read more

En este episodio especial en español, Laura Delgado López, becaria visitante del programa de las Américas, se sienta a conversar con Victoria Valdivia Cerda, profesora de la Academia Nacional de Estudios Políticos y Estratégicos (ANEPE) y experta en política y derecho espacial. Ellas conversan sobre las distintas formas en que los países latinoamericanos enfocan su actividad espacial, incluyendo el desarrollo tecnológico, la cooperación internacional y el impacto de la competencia entre grandes potencias en los programas espaciales de la región. También, discuten el desarrollo de capacida ..read more