Category: Latin America/Caribbean

Democracy down but not dying

     

Democracy has unquestionably lost its global momentum, note Carnegie Endowment analysts Thomas Carothers and Richard Youngs. But those who despair the future of democracy tend to focus on a select… Read more »

Maduro coup moves Venezuela towards ‘full-blown dictatorship’

     

Venezuela’s supreme court, which is controlled by President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government, has ruled it is taking over the opposition-dominated National Assembly, sparking fears that the crisis-riven country has moved… Read more »

Political survival beats economic logic as Cuba’s ‘reform drive hits the sand’

     

The anniversary of the Russian Revolution is a timely reminder that Marxist ideology, once entrenched in countries that controlled a third of the world’s population, survives today as an operable… Read more »

Venezuela’s tragic meltdown: Maduro regime’s ‘mysterious resilience’

     

Venezuela’s future is at stake this week as the Organization of American States plans to meet with officials from President Nicolás Maduro’s administration, and time is running out for them… Read more »

Bolivia’s Road Ahead

     

Bolivia’s likely political trajectory is discussed by Bolivian political analyst Raul Peñaranda (left), a Reagan-Fascell fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy; Jose Manuel Ormachea of the Bolivian National Network… Read more »

Cuba’s economy flat-lines: revolution is over, but dictatorship lives on

     

Cuba’s insular socialist paradise supposedly offers a social safety-net, cradle to grave. But it is full of holes, The Economist reports: Medical care is free, but most medicine is not…. Read more »

Reality check: life in a Cuban jail

     

Stephen Purvis loved Cuba and his job as development director with one of several small foreign firms that were setting up as the country sought international partners following the collapse… Read more »

Global Civic Activism in Flux

     

For civic activism, it appears to be both the best and worst of times, argues analyst Richard Youngs. The positive dynamics of empowerment and the negative trend of constraints on… Read more »