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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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‘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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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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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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Bona Fides and Possibilities

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Bona Fides and Possibilities CHILE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/baed026e-8c02-42fc-8c27-383b8bf87a6c.png"] Early last year, shortly after he was elected president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, 37, quoted a Chilean poem in his remarks at a meeting with the country’s most important industrialists and business leaders. The lines recalled a cemetery in...

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Change and Its Discontents

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Change and Its Discontents PARAGUAY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ee550bff-ea25-4704-9d3e-337485aa4528.png"] Presidents from the Colorado Party have ruled Paraguay for all but five years since the South American country adopted democracy in 1992. Now, however, as Paraguayan voters head to the polls to elect a new president on April 30,...

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Paradise, Imperfect

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Paradise, Imperfect COSTA RICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1680456f-646a-4ee8-9ddf-e349708a0ee2.png"] Those who live in Costa Rica practice what they refer to as the “pure life.” They dwell in a beautiful ecosystem where the culture is easygoing. The country’s army was abolished in 1948. In contrast with the 1980s, when deforestation...

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On the Precipice

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW On the Precipice SURINAME [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c997c02f-c706-4078-b30b-520ec1649e07.png"] Suriname’s gross domestic product (GDP) plunged by 16 percent during the coronavirus pandemic – the second worst dip in South America after the economic basket case of Venezuela. The country defaulted on its debt three times, leading the International Monetary...

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Taking Out the Trash

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Taking Out the Trash NICARAGUA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b1f74445-4296-4463-949d-e92d66c3e3b1.png"] Nicaraguan officials recently aired a prison interview with Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who in February was sentenced to more than 36 years in prison on charges of treason. Critics said the interview was staged to deflate criticism of the...

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