Politics, Business & Culture in the Americas
maduro

Why Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro Doesn’t Look Finished Quite Yet

While it’s tempting to describe President Nicolás Maduro’s government as crazy or erratic, a closer analysis reveals that decision-makers in Caracas operate according to a clear – and effective – set of principles. Indeed, Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez have long been aware of the fact that high-profile ruptures of democratic order – such … Read more

Correa

The Controversy That Could Swing Ecuador’s Election

A decade ago, Rafael Correa was sworn in as president of Ecuador in the Andean village of Zumbahua. In the presence of fellow “pink tide” socialist presidents Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, five indigenous priests sprinkled him with sacred herbs and evoked the spirits of the moon and sun to provide him with positive energy. But … Read more

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Five Ways Venezuelan Businesses Are Coping with Crisis

Businesses and entrepreneurs in Venezuela are responding to the country’s crippling economic crisis in all sorts of ways. Many are simply closing their doors – not surprising in a country whose GDP shrank by at least 10 percent last year.   But others have reinvented themselves to survive in the country’s off-kilter economy, as new … Read more

Russia_Top

Power Moves: How Venezuela’s Maduro Is Shoring Up His Defenses

Leer en español If the mood on the streets of Caracas is a guide, Venezuelans are increasingly reconciling themselves to an uncomfortable idea: President Nicolás Maduro isn’t going anywhere. Despite Venezuela enduring one of the most profound economic and political crises of any Latin American country in recent memory – and amid yearlong calls for … Read more

chavez

Chávez on TV: What “El Comandante” Says About Rising Populism

Moisés Naím doesn’t shy away from new projects. But the Venezuelan economist and TV host’s latest creative endeavor has sparked more than the usual controversy. “El Comandante,” a telenovela about Venezuela’s late former President Hugo Chávez , takes liberties with the strongman’s biography even as it considers his legacy and sheds light on his rise … Read more

PPK

Latin America’s Trump Whisperer

The year was 1967, and worried presidents from across the Americas gathered at a hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay to discuss a region in crisis. The twin shocks of the Cuban revolution and the Vietnam War were sowing unrest throughout the hemisphere. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was in the mountains of Bolivia, trying to incite … Read more

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A Familiar Pattern of Violence Could Threaten Colombia’s Peace Process

Implementing peace was always going to be harder than negotiating it. But in the three months since Colombia’s Congress endorsed a deal to end more than 50 years of conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s fragile peace process has already been put to a chilling test.  Since Dec. 1 of … Read more

Chuo

Enfrentando a Maduro: el nuevo plan de la oposición venezolana

Read in English ¿Puede un nuevo año y una nueva estrategia ayudar a la coalición opositora venezolana, MUD, a resolver diferencias internas? La oposición Venezolana ha tenido que auto-examinarse. A pesar de un año marcado por protestas masivas y rechazo internacional a las movidas antidemocráticas del presidente Nicolás Maduro, la Mesa de la Unidad Democrática … Read more

Chuo

Fighting Maduro: The Venezuelan Opposition’s New Plan

Leer en español Venezuela’s opposition has had to do some soul-searching. Despite a year punctuated by massive street protests and international condemnation of President Nicolás Maduro’s anti-democratic turns, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), a coalition of opposition parties, ended 2016 with little to celebrate. Its effort to force a recall referendum on Maduro came to … Read more

Santos

How Santos’ New Peace Deal Aggravated Colombia’s Drug War

Despite a tumultuous 2016, Colombia ended the year on a hopeful note. On Dec. 10, President Juan Manuel Santos accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest rebel group. In his acceptance speech, Santos said that “the impossible had become possible” … Read more

rutan

Medellín Proves Investing In Science Is a Good Bet for Cities

In the early 2000s, Medellín struggled to overcome high unemployment, inequality, and a lack of infrastructure and services in its poorest areas. The city needed not just incremental but radical change in order to tackle these challenges and succeed in an ever more competitive global context. To accomplish this, the city’s academics, businesspeople and civic … Read more

Proceso

“La Historia Secreta del Proceso de Paz”

In August 2010, three days into his first term as president, Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos met for the first time with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez. Relations between their two countries had hit bottom during the administration of Santos’s predecessor, Álvaro Uribe. But now, in the city of Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the … Read more

Andres

AQ Top 5 Jóvenes Emprendedores: Andrés Moreno

Este artículo es parte de un reportaje especial sobre los top cinco jóvenes emprendedores latinoamericanos seleccionados por AQ. Haga click aquí para ver el resto. Read in English Es casi engañoso decir que Open English es una startup latinoamericana. La financiación original que la convirtió en uno de los servicios de aprendizaje de idiomas en … Read more

JimenaFlorez

AQ Top 5 Jóvenes Emprendedores: Jimena Flórez

Este artículo ha sido actualizado Este artículo es parte de un reportaje especial sobre los top cinco jóvenes emprendedores latinoamericanos seleccionados por AQ. Haga click aquí para ver el resto. Read in English La historia del éxito emprendedor de Jimena Flórez comienza, inesperadamente, con una cerveza fría en Alemania. Después de graduarse de bachillerato en … Read more

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