Latin America and the Caribbean

The aging process is unstoppable. We need to adapt ourselves to the demographic transition and build the right policies to deal with this. Using the population projections by the United Nations and the labor force participation by the World Bank, Latin America has 5.2 potential workers[1] per elder; by 2040, that ratio would be 3, […]

Colombians were enraged. On May 1st, 2021, amid the third wave of covid-19 cases, a national protest took place where more than 300.000 people blocked roads and cities for more than 50 days. Violence and death sprang on the streets, polarization on social media proved a cracked society, road blockages paralyzed the private sector, and […]

“My body, my choice!” screamed thousands of women in unison as they waved their emblematic green handkerchiefs in Plaza de Bolivar turning Bogotá into the most recent battlefield of women’s fight towards reproductive autonomy. Colombian feminist collectives are following the example of their Mexican and Argentinian peers in demanding the full legalization of abortion[1]. Abortion […]

A more efficient allocation of daycare centers, aligned with urban production centers, could allow Peruvian companies to avoid disruption of work, open spaces for women to enter or re-enter the labor market and invest in their current and future workforce. Fewer countries have been hit by the pandemic than Peru, exposing its unstable labor market. […]

Crime, violence, and a weak rule of law are among Mexico’s most pressing issues. In 2018, the country was ranked 99 out of 102 countries in terms of Order and Security in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index (WJP 2019). Mexico City is not the exception, where crimes have increased by 58% in […]

At the time of this writing over 400,000 people in Brazil have died of COVID-19. This trend does not seem to be slowing down. As time passes, I am increasingly fearful for friends and acquaintances, as Afro-descendants and indigenous Brazilians are 38 percent more likely to die of COVID-19 than white Brazilians and 32 percent higher than the general population. Negationist attitudes among our current political leadership means that these deaths are being trivialized. On top of this, restrictions do not allow funerals, do not allow humane farewells, the sharing of tears, the necessary rituals of passage.

In November, the Frente de Todos coalition was defeated by the opposition Juntos por el Cambio in Argentina’s midterm, rocking the boat for the ruling party, thus their internal tensions. Despite this -not new- news, the current administration faces a very-much-complicated 2022, where the fragile economic indicators turn against them: the inflation reached almost 50% […]

One of the accepted horrors of the pandemic is that Latinx populations sustain a disproportionately high burden of COVID-19. Take the city of San Antonio and surrounding Bexar county, for example, whose population is 60.7% Latinx.1 Of the COVID-19 cases and deaths where race/ethnicity was identified in the medical report, 75% of cases and 65% […]

The year 2021 is a year of national elections in Argentina. At the federal level, this election is not for President, but for Congressmen and Congresswomen. Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases across the territory of Argentina, in mid-April, the Argentine Congress announced it will debate postponing the national elections to be held in […]

National polls ran by some of the most renowned national newspapers in México, show that the level of acceptance of the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador is one of the highest in the country’s history. Nevertheless, a highly polarized public opinion about federal government intervention is observable. Considering some research made by the author, it […]

  Declared as one of the worst humanitarian disaster in modern time[i], the global health crisis is further straining Venezuela. The country that lays on the world’s largest oil reserve, is unable to meet people’s basic needs of food, hygiene, and minimal protective equipment[ii] in times of a pandemic. To this end, on September 19, […]

When Mauricio Claver-Carone was elected as president of the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) last September, a 60-year tradition was broken, deepening the irrelevancy of Latin America in the global stage. This is so because the IADB, a key player when it comes to funding projects for the Latin American countries, has had a non-written […]