There was a time in the 1990s when development practitioners, former leftist revolutionaries, activists, and academics reified civil society, notes Christopher Sabatini, PhD, the editor of www.LatinAmericaGoesGlobal.org and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of… Read more »
Like Venezuela, the administrations in Ecuador and Bolivia have taken decisive steps to concentrate power in the executive branch, weaken independent institutions, persecute political opposition, and close media space. Keeping… Read more »
Venezuela is a failing state. Despite having the world’s largest proven hydrocarbon reserves, the nation is bankrupt, says Eric Farnsworth, the Vice President of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas:… Read more »
The financial crisis is one of a number of challenges which have sapped the confidence of established democracies to stand up for democratic values, the National Endowment for Democracy‘s Christopher Walker… Read more »
Populism, Peronism and Maoism are all forms of ideological necrophilia – the blind fixation with dead ideas, notes Moisés Naím, a distinguished fellow in the International Economics Program at the… Read more »
Venezuela’s recently-elected assembly has approved a pardon for political prisoners. The move is the latest in the country’s “transition from authoritarianism to democracy,” said opposition MUD coalition leader Jesus Torrealba…. Read more »
As markets brace themselves for the negative effects of the decline in oil prices, Venezuela will probably be the first big domino to fall, notes Ricardo Hausmann, the director… Read more »
Argentina has gone further than other Latin American states to snub Venezuela’s Chavista establishment over its violations of human rights and democracy, notes analyst Mac Margolis: Recently elected President Mauricio… Read more »
When Venezuela’s head of state arrived in Quito, Ecuador, last week for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit, his pitch was almost unrecognizable. Gone were the encomiums… Read more »
Now that Hugo Chávez’s old adversaries have taken over Venezuela’s Parliament, they are adopting one of his populist tactics and doing it better. They want to give away the deeds… Read more »