Category: Latin America/Caribbean

Kleptocratic networks: corruption’s operating system

     

In some five dozen countries worldwide, corruption can no longer be understood as merely the iniquitous doings of individuals. Rather, it is the operating system of sophisticated networks that cross… Read more »

Cubazuela: Why Nicolas Maduro doesn’t really control Venezuela

     

Removing Nicolas Maduro from office won’t ease the country’s misery, not least because the most important component of this oligarchy is the Cuban regime, analyst Moisés Naím writes for The… Read more »

‘Principled realism’ sacrificing human rights, democracy in ‘value-neutral transactions’?

     

Does a foreign policy of “principled realism” necessarily entail sidelining human rights concerns and offering few critiques of authoritarian leaders’ records on democracy, the rule of law and protecting essential… Read more »

Radical transparency the only fix for Brazil’s corruption crisis

     

Endless corruption scandals have brought Brazilian democracy to its most vulnerable point since the end of dictatorship three decades ago, according to Brian Winter, Editor in Chief of Americas Quarterly. But Brazil’s leaders… Read more »

Counting the cost of corruption: citizen movements demanding transparency

     

Thousands of Moroccans marched in a northern town to protest against injustice and corruption this week, Reuters reports: Political protests are rare in Morocco, but tensions in al-Hoceima have been… Read more »

New corruption scandal a further blow to Brazil’s democracy

     

Brazilian President Michel Temer is once again under fire, this time amid reports that prosecutors have obtained recordings of him discussing hush money payments with a jailed associate. The obstruction… Read more »

Venezuela’s government to write new constitution? ‘That way lies autocracy,’ says analyst

     

Facing escalating civil unrest, the government of Venezuela has finally come up with a response: a call for a constituent assembly, notes Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor of political… Read more »

Authoritarians mobilizing illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces

     

Authoritarian regimes are mobilizing and orchestrating ‘uncivil’ society groups and illiberal non-state actors against democratic forces, reports suggest. The uniformed men who shot Venezuelan pro-democracy demonstrator Carlos Moreno were not… Read more »

Approaching a tipping point? Venezuela seizes GM plant as protests swell

     

  General Motors said on Thursday that the Venezuelan authorities had seized its vehicle assembly plant in the country, adding to the chaos in the already-struggling auto industry there, The… Read more »

Democratic backsliding: the perils of polarization

     

If democratic backsliding were to occur in the United States, it would not take the form of a coup d’état; there would be no declaration of martial law or imposition of single-party rule,… Read more »