On May 2, 2024, the Dialogue’s Rule of Law Program, the Stanford Law School’s Rule of Law Impact Lab, and the Mexican Bar Association released a report analyzing the constitutional reform proposals presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the Mexican Congress in February 2024. The report concludes that the proposals directed at the federal judiciary constitute a direct threat to judicial independence.
The Venezuelan opposition primaries saw a remarkable turnout, with over 2.3 million voters, resulting in María Corina Machado’s victory despite her disqualification by the regime. The Barbados Agreement and the lifting of US sanctions offer a potential breakthrough for establishing some electoral conditions. However, a transition of power cannot occur without a clear and coherent path forward beyond election day.
While the market inherently lacks the ability to discriminate between democratic and undemocratic regimes, the identification of autocracy as a tangible risk factor is crucial. Investors must recognize that supporting non-democratic regimes ultimately undermines their own interests.
In Latin America, trust in democracy takes two paths: Good Governance, meeting citizens’ expectations under the rule of law, and Populism, where a leader perceived as a savior, centralizes power to deliver on promises. This finding was among the key insights revealed during the highly anticipated launch of the 2023 AmericasBarometer.
In the midst of democratic decline in the region, young people are emerging as agents of change. Their active participation not only represents a fresh and vibrant voice in regional politics but also offers a new perspective and focus to address the challenges facing the region.
En América Latina, los llamados “outsiders” con agendas anti-sistema o anti-establishment – desde Alberto Fujimori en Perú hasta Hugo Chávez en Venezuela, Nayib Bukele en El Salvador, Donald Trump en Estados Unidos y Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil – han tenido un fuerte impacto en el Estado de derecho tras asumir el poder.
Amid Venezuela’s crisis and the upcoming 2024 presidential elections, a potential opportunity for a democratic transition may emerge. The escalating authoritarianism, human rights abuses, and dire humanitarian situation underscore the critical importance of addressing these challenges while also identifying opportunities for transition to occur.
In El Salvador, the government of Nayib Bukele has posed a significant challenge to democracy in the region. His security policies, which have yielded positive results in reducing insecurity rates, have led to serious abuses and were made possible through prior measures that concentrated the power in the executive branch. These policies have also boosted the popularity of the Salvadoran president. This highlights the need to promote democratic and effective alternatives to address insecurity in the region.