October 09, 2023

Isthmus, Jammed

NEED TO KNOW Isthmus, Jammed PANAMA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/337297fc-0711-4678-8ee9-a8aa69435261.png"] Officials operating the Panama Canal recently capped the number of ships passing through the commercial waterway to 31 a day, compared with 32 in August and an average of 36 a month, due to a drought that lowered water levels. This seemingly...

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October 04, 2023

Looking Outward

NEED TO KNOW Looking Outward CANADA/ INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8412b56a-7633-de79-e4b2-da6875292028.png"] Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently said that his government was open to investigating any information that Canadian officials might produce in relation to the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June. Jaishankar’s announcement came more than...

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October 02, 2023

Disappearing the Disappeared

NEED TO KNOW Disappearing the Disappeared MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently announced that prosecutors had sought to arrest 16 more members of the Mexican military in relation to the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. The announcement came after a Mexican judge...

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September 19, 2023

The Black Gold Rush

NEED TO KNOW The Black Gold Rush GUYANA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f8be526f-1a25-4582-b3e1-262a3f003cd5.png"] A remarkable economic experiment is occurring now in Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Oil giants like ExxonMobil, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and TotalEnergies are now bidding on the rights to drill for black...

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September 13, 2023

Club Fed

NEED TO KNOW Club Fed PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] The special prison that Peruvian officials have established on the outskirts of Lima for presidents convicted of corruption is full. Attorney and pundit Rosa Maria Palacios told National Public Radio that the presence of three former heads of state in the...

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September 07, 2023

The Dismantling

NEED TO KNOW The Dismantling ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] For generations, Argentina’s economy has struggled with debt, inflation, and other economic challenges. Today, the South American country is printing money to pay its bills while also withdrawing $7.5 billion from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program, adding to the...

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August 29, 2023

Mopping Up

NEED TO KNOW Mopping Up GUATEMALA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db73a011-021f-466b-9b89-77add155facc.png"] Anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo won Guatemala’s presidential election on Aug. 20, garnering a clear mandate with nearly 60 percent of the vote. He defeated Sandra Torres, a former first lady, who was a leader in the Central American country’s conservative elite. It...

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August 17, 2023

Taming Through Terror

NEED TO KNOW Taming Through Terror ECUADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7dbfcec9-d17b-43ce-97b7-0ce48bb12d1f.png"] Just a few years ago, Ecuador, sandwiched between narco-states Peru and Colombia, then grappling with their own civil conflicts, was an oasis of relative prosperity and peace in the region. Now, as voters go to the polls on Aug. 20 to...

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August 10, 2023

On the Side of Life

NEED TO KNOW On the Side of Life COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] Pablo Beltran recently visited Bogota, the capital of his native country Colombia, for the first time in 31 years. Beltran is a leader in the National Liberation Army – known by its Spanish acronym ELN – a Marxist...

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August 04, 2023

An Antiquated Model

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW An Antiquated Model BOLIVIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8ed01a1e-5cea-4b63-b4c0-c3727f7de51c.png"] China has invested more than a billion dollars in lithium and other mines in Bolivia. Former President Evo Morales and current President Luis Arce – both of the leftwing Movement for Socialism political party – actively cultivated this capital for...

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July 26, 2023

Declaring War

NEED TO KNOW Declaring War BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7cee1e0-dcb8-68eb-6ed9-13e370771cbb.png"] Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the charge to protect the Amazonian rainforest. Following Lula’s example, leaders of eight South American countries are now pledging to end illegal deforestation in the massive region that has been called the lungs...

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July 18, 2023

Past and Present

NEED TO KNOW Past and Present URUGUAY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ca7fb39c-8156-49ef-9ea8-c114f0eb8b34.png"] The Admiral Graf Spee was a German warship scuttled in 1939 in Montevideo Bay in Uruguay after the Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of World War II. In 2006, treasure hunters searching the bay discovered...

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July 12, 2023

Not Going Anywhere

NEED TO KNOW Not Going Anywhere MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Since he began his six-year term of office in December 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the center-left populist has stirred controversy, particularly with his plans to root out corrupt interests and invest in public infrastructure to help the...

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July 07, 2023

Community Policing

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Community Policing HONDURAS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5e2a67ee-c113-425a-b7dc-9cb08a72f95e.png"] The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has earned plaudits from many of his people – and brickbats from human rights activists – for his crackdown on the gangs that have long run rampant in the Central American country. Now El Salvador’s...

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June 23, 2023

The Fix Is In

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Fix Is In GUATEMALA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db73a011-021f-466b-9b89-77add155facc.png"] A Guatemalan court recently convicted newspaper publisher José Rubén Zamora of money laundering and sentenced him to six years in prison. His newspaper, El Periódico, regularly investigated Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, the New...

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June 19, 2023

Hot Stuff

NEED TO KNOW Hot Stuff CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] In an example of climate change arousing an international effort, firefighters from around the globe have rushed to help put out the Canadian wildfires that have burned 13 million acres of forest and choked the US Midwest and Eastern seaboard with...

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June 15, 2023

Intrigue in the Palace

NEED TO KNOW Intrigue in the Palace COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] Leftist leaders from around the globe recently issued an open letter to the Colombian public, saying that the opponents of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who assumed office a year ago, were planning a “soft coup” to oust him from...

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June 06, 2023

‘Cool’ Crimefighting

NEED TO KNOW ‘Cool’ Crimefighting EL SALVADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9d16e98f-6fe6-4329-b9c8-47184d56b2ce.png"] A judge in El Salvador recently sentenced the former president of the country, Mauricio Funes, to 14 years in prison for negotiating with gangs when he was in office between 2009 and 2014, a period when the country suffered some...

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May 30, 2023

The Meanest of Streets

NEED TO KNOW The Meanest of Streets HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently called for the richest countries in the world to help Haiti, the violence-wracked, impoverished, politically unstable nation in the Caribbean. “In Haiti, we need to act quickly to alleviate the suffering of...

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May 15, 2023

The Ephemeral Ballot

NEED TO KNOW The Ephemeral Ballot VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f52c66cd-9299-42e6-acd8-f970f62c524b.png"] Venezuelan voters are supposed to go to the polls sometime next year to elect a new government. It’s not actually certain that a ballot will be held, however. That said, as Americas Quarterly wrote, even if an election is held,...

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