jon_chica / Adobe Stock / Extended License
The Andean migrant population in the US is remitting 50% of all flows to their homelands in the Andes, over US$10 billion in 2022 from the US and US$11 billion in 2023. Within this context, the following briefing offers a characterization of migration from the Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.Read more +
Jonathan Miranda/ Office of the Presidency of Ecuador
Ecuador's security crisis has surged to unprecedented levels, casting a chilling shadow across the nation. The distressing events on January 8 and 9 are a demonstration of a crisis that has worsened over the years, fueled by the clear neglect and failures of successive governments. Read more +
Florent Mechain / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 DEED
Tropical forests, which cover 6 percent of Earth, are our planet’s largest natural carbon sink and our first line of defense against climate change. Even with massive human effort at reducing emissions, reaching the 1.5-degree target is not possible without forest restoration. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), whose forests…Read more +
Federico Parra / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
On December 3, President Nicolás Maduro held a referendum asking citizens whether the Essequibo region should be “reclaimed” as part of Venezuelan territory. Whether prompted by the 2015 discovery of abundant oil reserves, or the need to gain popularity before the 2024 presidential elections, Maduro ordered Petróleos de Venezuela, SA…Read more +
Flickr / CIFOR / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED
There is a new source of controversy around carbon offsets the role of governments. Nation-states are getting more involved in voluntary carbon markets (VCMs), and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before governments began to participate, and, if done right, such…Read more +
Servicio Nacional de Migración de Panamá / Twitter
This piece offers a look at the current migration trends and points to large differences that characterize this situation as a crisis: the scale, composition, nature, and management of migration is outside conventional or historical patterns. Aspects of this unprecedented migration pattern are not within the control of government authorities and policy makers. The recent migration wave to the US border has been referred to as a crisis. Media references point to the drama of people arriving and passing through the Darien, Central America, and Mexico to characterize the problem. Others have pointed out the increasing arrivals into US cities in numbers that are hard to manage by local communities.Read more +
Eneas de Troya / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
As governments and regional organizations muster a plan for post-pandemic economic recovery, addressing corruption must be at the forefront of any response — now more than ever.Read more +
Feliciano Reyna, Temir Porras, Verónica Zubillaga
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Credit: Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela
Perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives—inside Venezuela and across its borders—now depend on whether our leaders can put aside their battle for control, engage politically in good faith, and momentarily put the wellbeing of citizens first by taking the urgent steps needed to combat the virus crisis and its consequences.Read more +
March against fracking in San Martín, Cesar.
Esperanza Proxima/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
For over a decade Colombians have been debating whether or not to allow oil companies to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to produce oil and gas from shale rock, a technique that has been controversial in many countries. The high court’s decision last week to uphold a moratorium on fracking suggests the increasingly polarized debate is far from over.Read more +
Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz / Facebook
President Duque must confront a new test of his leadership rather than put the JEP controversy behind him. Duque has remained silent on the referendum thus far, but now must decide whether to accept the judgment of the Colombian Congress and Constitutional Court and allow the transitional justice process to move forward, or join his mentor Uribe’s continuing efforts to undermine the JEP. Read more +
Knight Foundation/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month prompted worldwide outrage and a business backlash that has refocused attention on the safety of journalists. Latin America and the Caribbean was the deadliest part of the world in 2017 for journalists, with more than a quarter of murders taking place in the region.Read more +
Cesar Jose Honostroza Pariachi / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Peru’s inclination to growth over institutionalization could be seen as a sort of libertarian experiment—getting the state out of the way in a country where economic mismanagement has more than once led to disaster. But, while in the short term Peru has defied research that shows that institutional factors—such as corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, and lack of trust and satisfaction in government—are consistent structural obstacles to prosperity, cracks are beginning to show. Read more +
Eneas De Troya / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
2018 will be a pivotal year for energy in Latin America, as the region’s top oil producers are set to hold presidential elections that could lead to sweeping policy changes.Read more +
CIDH / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Policymakers in Bogota are running out of time to preemptively tackle a potential humanitarian crisis that could complicate the implementation of the peace accords with the FARC rebels. Read more +
OAS / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Headlines out of next week’s OAS General Assembly will inevitably focus on Venezuela—the first item foreign ministers will take up when they gather in Cancún, Mexico. Read more +
