April 08, 2024

No Occupancy

NEED TO KNOW No Occupancy PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] Many Peruvians lost respect for Dina Boluarte when she campaigned as left-wing President Pedro Castillo’s running mate, but became a business-friendly conservative when right-wing Peruvian lawmakers removed Castillo from office in 2022, elevating Vice President Boluarte to the South American country’s...

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April 05, 2024

Walking Sideways

NEED TO KNOW Walking Sideways HONDURAS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5e2a67ee-c113-425a-b7dc-9cb08a72f95e.png"] A federal court recently convicted former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández of conspiring to traffic cocaine to the US, as well as on two weapons charges. When he is sentenced in late June, he will face 40 years to life in...

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March 25, 2024

Refusing to Collapse

NEED TO KNOW Refusing to Collapse VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f52c66cd-9299-42e6-acd8-f970f62c524b.png"] President Nicolás Maduro seems likely to breeze through Venezuela’s July 28 general election. He recently won the nomination of his political party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, with little or no opposition, reported the Associated Press. He also faces no...

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March 20, 2024

The Dream

NEED TO KNOW The Dream COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] The first-ever leftwing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, 63, promised to make his country into a more equal society when he won office two years ago. Now the former guerrilla fighter and mayor of the capital of Bogota is struggling to...

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February 29, 2024

The Ghosts of the Sea

NEED TO KNOW The Ghosts of the Sea TRINIDAD & TOBAGO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c2a34d96-e7b1-4efc-8d11-9d5fe05a8be2.png"] A bag containing $75,000 worth of cocaine recently washed up on the shore at Cove Estate on Tobago, one of the islands that comprise the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Sea. Police have...

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February 20, 2024

Disaster, in Slow Motion

NEED TO KNOW Disaster, in Slow Motion HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] Feb. 7 is a treasured day in Haiti. In 1986, it was on this day that Haitians ejected dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier after 15 years. Five years later, on that very day, Haitians witnessed the swearing-in of Jean-Bertrand Aristide,...

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February 12, 2024

Havana Blues

NEED TO KNOW Havana Blues CUBA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/934b8716-56c1-487d-ba72-11a855fa10c6.png"] Storm waves recently flung jellyfish and seaweed onto the streets of Havana. After the storm, temperatures plunged to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, unusually cold weather for the Caribbean island. “This really is something new … we’re not used to this kind of cold,”...

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February 06, 2024

Growing Pains

NEED TO KNOW Growing Pains ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] Labor unions took to the streets a few weeks ago in Argentina to oppose recently elected President Javier Milei’s libertarian plans to adopt the US dollar as the country’s official currency while radically shrinking government spending. It’s the president’s first big test...

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February 02, 2024

‘Hustle-bro Populism’

NEED TO KNOW ‘Hustle-bro Populism’ EL SALVADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9d16e98f-6fe6-4329-b9c8-47184d56b2ce.png"] El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has drawn admiration and condemnation since he first took office in 2019. The former mayor of the capital of San Salvador whose maternal grandparents hailed from Jerusalem, Bukele created a bitcoin investment fund after making the...

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January 24, 2024

When the Street Wins

NEED TO KNOW When the Street Wins GUATEMALA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db73a011-021f-466b-9b89-77add155facc.png"] Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo’s supporters came out in force outside Congress on Jan. 14. But they weren’t there to witness his inauguration – they were there to make sure it even happened at all. As commentators noted, after much struggle,...

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January 18, 2024

Trading in Blood

NEED TO KNOW Trading in Blood MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Mexico is the United States’ top trading partner – more than 800 billion dollars’ worth of goods move across the border each year, according to the US government. Some of those goods crossing the border, however, are not welcome – namely...

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January 02, 2024

Envy Thy Neighbour

NEED TO KNOW Envy Thy Neighbor VENEZUELA/ GUYANA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96b8d0fc-cea6-f07b-0b19-9f5f4be48cd1.png"] Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali recently committed to refrain from resorting to force to settle their dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region on the border between the two South American countries. As the BBC explained, Essequibo...

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December 25, 2023

To the Rescue

NEED TO KNOW To the Rescue ECUADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7dbfcec9-d17b-43ce-97b7-0ce48bb12d1f.png"] Ecuador is overly dependent on oil and, therefore, the dramatic economic swings that often occur in energy commodities. Violence has skyrocketed as the South American country has become a center of the cocaine trade. Corruption is endemic. A fresh face emerged...

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December 15, 2023

Political Whiplash

NEED TO KNOW Political Whiplash CHILE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/baed026e-8c02-42fc-8c27-383b8bf87a6c.png"] In September 2022, the new left-wing president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and his progressive allies asked voters to ditch the business-friendly constitution written under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and opt for a new document that would uphold social and indigenous rights,...

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December 05, 2023

Treasure Islands

NEED TO KNOW Treasure Islands CARIBBEAN The Council of the European Union recently deemed the Caribbean countries of Antigua, Barbuda, and Belize as “non-cooperative” on requests for tax information, governance inquiries, and transparency. They joined Panama and Anguilla, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos...

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November 27, 2023

Rapprochement

NEED TO KNOW Rapprochement VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f52c66cd-9299-42e6-acd8-f970f62c524b.png"] As post-pandemic inflation gripped the global economy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy costs to spike, the United States sought to expand the oil available on world markets by easing sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela. The sanctions date from 2005, when the US...

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November 23, 2023

Old Money

NEED TO KNOW Old Money BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7cee1e0-dcb8-68eb-6ed9-13e370771cbb.png"] Slave trader Jose Bernardino de Sá was one of Brazil’s wealthiest people in the mid-1800s. He trafficked nearly 20,000 Africans to the South American country, using his proceeds to build roads and farms, and to finance the Banco do Brasil, which...

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November 10, 2023

Young Bloods

NEED TO KNOW Young Bloods ECUADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7dbfcec9-d17b-43ce-97b7-0ce48bb12d1f.png"] Ecuador, just a few years ago, was an oasis of relative prosperity and peace in the region. More recently, however, it’s become overly dependent on oil and, therefore, prey to the dramatic economic swings that often occur in energy commodities. Violence...

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October 25, 2023

Failing a State

NEED TO KNOW Failing a State HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] Kenyan lawmakers are considering a plan to deploy 1,000 police to Haiti. This unique effort – an African democracy sending peacekeeping forces to aid a former French colony where ethnic Africans staged a groundbreaking slave revolt more than two centuries ago...

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October 19, 2023

Twirl, Dip and Turn

NEED TO KNOW Twirl, Dip and Turn ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] Argentina’s financial markets reeled in August after presidential candidate Javier Milei won the largest share in the primary election – 30 percent – on a platform of radically cutting spending and using the American currency in place of the...

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