Reading Time: 5 minutes SANTIAGO—Chile is stuck in the slow lane on lithium. President Gabriel Boric’s administration is hoping a roadmap introduced one year ago will steer the mineral-rich country onto a faster course by encouraging investment without compromising social and environmental commitments. A few investors are eager to jump in. But with state companies mandated to control the most coveted assets and legal clouds on the horizon, others are wary.  Lithium is among a handful of minerals critical for renewable energy and batteries used in electric vehicles, so Chile’s policy matte ..read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes “Why would I want to keep on living in a country where people hate me?” So says Augusto Pinochet, who, after two centuries of life as a vampire, has finally decided to die. The Oscar-nominated film El Conde, directed by Pablo Larraín, bitterly satirizes Chile’s infamous dictator, who staged a coup against democratically elected President Salvador Allende, and then ruled the country for 17 years. In this grisly farce, up for an award for its cinematography on March 10, Larraín manages to inject freshness and humor into a story that has been told and retold for decades. B ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes Almost immediately after former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera died in a helicopter crash this week, the tributes started coming in. Some of them were quite unexpected. “As everyone knows, we didn’t have the same ideas,” Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s former president, wrote on social media. “But we were always united by a relationship of much respect: He was a man of the (ideological) right, but deeply democratic. I remember with affection his sense of humor and the warmth of his family, whom I met in Chile. For them, all my condolences.” The outpourin ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute The images coming out of Ecuador in the past week were just the latest reminder of the extraordinary power of drug cartels in Latin America. Despite efforts by many governments, the production of cocaine in the region continues to soar, and criminal groups have diversified their practices. In this episode, a look at how leaders around Latin America are responding to this crisis. We’ll discuss whether legalization of some drugs might be politically viable and how drug violence is likely to impact politics in years to come. Our guest is Lucía Dammert, a researcher in ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute In 2023 Latin America’s economies performed better than analysts expected. 2024 also promises growth, although the picture will vary a lot by country. On today’s podcast, we’ll look at which may perform better, which will do worse, what factors could determine success or failure and what may be the impact of elections, which are set to take place in six Latin American nations this year. Our guest is Ariane Ortiz-Bollin, Vice President – Senior Credit Officer for Latin America Credit Strategy and Research, at Moody’s Investors Service. Subscribe to the Americas ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes On December 17, 56% of Chilean voters rejected a constitutional proposal drafted by a majority right-wing council. A previous text, written by a mainly left-wing convention, was dismissed by 62% of voters in the September 2022 plebiscite. After yesterday’s referendum, President Gabriel Boric said that the constitutional process was now closed for the remainder of his term. AQ asked analysts to share their reaction to the result: Patricio Navia, professor of liberal studies at NYU and professor of political science a ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes Chile’s referendum on December 17 will reveal if voters back the second attempt at rewriting the constitution in as many years. According to polls, chances are that this new draft will not obtain more than 40-45% support, in which case the current constitution, which dates back to 1980—the Augusto Pinochet era—will remain in force. The country’s political divide will likely contribute to mostly “no” votes in the plebiscite. While an elected convention dominated by leftists drafted the first version rejected in 2022, this second iteration is the product of an elected cou ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes As the world’s second-largest producer of battery-grade lithium carbonate (LCE), a crucial part of electric car batteries, Chile has long outpaced Argentina and Bolivia in attracting investment to mine it. But a series of events is changing Latin America’s so-called “lithium triangle.” With the world’s largest deposits, Bolivia has secured new multimillion-dollar investments, and Argentina’s lightly regulated lithium sector is roaring full speed ahead. In contrast, Chile has no new projects underway, and a planned overhaul of the industry under President Gabriel Boric ..read more

Reading Time: < 1 minute Chile’s new constitutional proposal is ready and will be put to a plebiscite on Dec. 17. The document was received earlier week by President Gabriel Boric after a mostly right-wing  Constitutional Council drafted the text. This episode does a political overview of the country. We discuss what this new constitution would change, if approved, and look more broadly at the status of the left and the right, at Gabriel Boric’s political future and the state of the economy. Our guest in Claudia Heiss, Head of Political Science at Universidad de Chile. Subscribe t ..read more

Reading Time: 4 minutes For the past six months, Chile’s constitution has been under surgery in a second attempt to recast the fundamental rights that will bring the country into the modern era. Polls show that the effort of an expert commission and the council overseeing the process is heading toward another rejection in December’s referendum. Despite recent concessions by the Partido Republicano, which has the largest representation on the council, some observers remain skeptical about whether the new text will be approved in the upcoming vote. Last week, commissions within the cou ..read more