As if we hardly need reminding that Chile's controversial pension reforms were the focal point of protests at the heart of the civil unrest or "estallido social". This has been particularly incendiary in Chile with the AFP's origins dating back to the Pinochet dictatorship. 

Chile has always seemed like the Switzerland of Latin America, routinely topping regionally adjusted league tables, but obviously it was massively inequitable and the pension system bred particular resentment over time.  

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we speak to Nicholas Barr, Professor of Public Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of numerous books and papers on the welfare state including pensions and higher education finance. 

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we take a look at the implications of mass deportations from the United States and the possible effects of this on Trinidad and Tobago's society, the current state of emergency due to violent crime as well as the upcoming elections in April. 

With the surge in gang-driven crime due to transnational drugs, arms and people trafficking, Trinidad and Tobago finds itself negotiating a precarious balancing act in managing the challenges of being located alongside Venezuela and adhering to demands from the United States. 

We speak to Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, an expert on Caribbean affairs, a scholar turned writer and author of ten books, a retired political scientist who has served as President of Fort Valley State University and Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana amongst other accolades.

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we take a profound look at current events involving Panama, most notably the statements about the country made by President Trump. Was Panama a bad deal for the US? Is there a possibility of the US invading Panama in a second take on 1989's operation Just Cause? Does China control the canal? 

It's a sign of the times that we have to seriously consider the possibility of President Trump ordering an invasion of a democratic ally. So, we put Panama's diplomatic tensions with the US into a historical context and deconstruct many of the baseless fallacies being repeated. 

Explaining in great depth and clarifying many of the complexities in the relationship between Panama and the US and the issues of the canal and Chinese involvement is John Feeley, former US ambassador to Panama, former political consultant for Univision, an officer and helicopter pilot in the Marine corps and a senior western hemisphere official. 

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As his popularity continues to wane, President Lula appears as if disconnected to the new realities in Brazil as he faces the most testing time in his political career. 

The weakness of Brazil's currency, the rising cost of living, the disastrous municipal elections in October 2024, the fiscal deficit and investor concerns are all issues which Lula needs to face up to but, as yet, has been unable to address. 

This week on The LatinNews Podcast, we speak to Richard Lapper, author and journalist and expert on Latin America. Lapper speaks about the potential consequences of Lula's failure to encourage his Partido dos Trabalhadores, Workers' Party in moving beyond its core politics, which were developed in 1970s and 1980s, to the new national reality in which poorer Brazilians are increasingly individualistic in their economic opportunities and therefore more detached from decisions in Brasilia. 

We also look ahead at the presidential elections tabled for October 2026 and ask: is there an anointed successor to Lula or opposition figure and former president Jair Bolsonaro and how Brazil's judiciary and congress are gaining more power at the expense of the executive.

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Suriname will vote for a new president on 25 May 2025 in what are seen as crucial elections set against the backdrop of economic uncertainty and the forthcoming exploitation of potentially wealth-changing oil reserves for the country.

Presently, there are 15 to 17 parties registered and in this episode of The LatinNews Podcast we provide an explainer of the main parties and political players, the most pressing concerns of the electorate such as the economy, healthcare and relations with Guyana. 

Joining us is journalist Ank Kuipers who provides us with insightful considerations of current events in Suriname. We delve into how the electoral process works in Suriname, the issues of corruption and clientelism, the protests of 2023 and the impact of the death of the controversial if charismatic figure of Desi Bouterse in December 2024. 

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we take a look at the challenges ahead for Mercosur, Mercado Común del Sur (Southern Common Market), as this trading bloc seeks to sign a FTA with the EU despite opposition from several European nations and approval from others, political polarization and enmity between Argentina's President Milei and Brazil's President Lula. 

Does this new look deal being negotiated differ at all from the original one, what can we expect during this era of new international contexts with the government of President Trump in the USA, will Mercosur expand and will there be an agreement so that individual member states achieve bilateral trade deals with third parties? 

We speak to Ignacio Bartesaghi, PhD in International Relations, Director of the Instituto de Negocios Internacionales at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay and expert on Mercosur.

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If we take President Milei's achievements in Argentina at his word, his policies have led to the reduction of inflation, created a fiscal surplus and a reduction of the country's credit debts. He has avoided impeachment, hyperinflation, reduced price indexes, controlled social unrest and carried out far-reaching austerity measures.

Can President Milei consolidate stability, avoid problems with the exchange rate and maintain fiscal discipline in 2025 all in the lead up to mid-term elections in October?

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we speak to Jorge Morgenstern, chief economist at Galicia MAS and formerly chief economist for HSBC in Latin America and explore how the Argentine public has largely bought in to the Milei experiment and looking ahead, with elections in Chile in 2025 and then in Colombia and Peru in 2026, could this model from Argentina - formerly a byword for economic instability in the region - be exported across the region.

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Despite mineral production never having dominated the economies of Central American countries, change appears to be on the horizon. On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we talk to Paul Harris, Americas editor for Mining Journal, Senior editor for Kitco and organizer of the Colombia Gold Symposium to hear his thoughts on upcoming decisions in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama. 

Firstly, President Bukele's proposal to walk back his country's 2017 total ban on metal mining in El Salvador and encourage multinational firms to exploit gold deposits, meanwhile, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves submitted a bill to the unicameral National Assembly to reverse the ban on open-pit mining in that country. 

And, despite massive social protests in Panama in 2023, due to allegations of serious environmental contamination surrounding a copper mine there, President Mulino looks set to revisit the question of this closure. 

We ask Paul Harris about the possible outcomes of each circumstance, whether this may shake up attitudes to mining in Mexico and also extend our conversation to include the probabilities of a new mining code being released in Colombia in 2025. 

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Hundreds and thousands of Cubans have arrived in the US since 2022, power outages are becoming more frequent and the island does not generate enough from exports to pay for its imports, does anything remain of the "achievements of the Revolution" such as: health, education and social equality? 

On the LatinNews podcast this week, we speak to William LeoGrande, Professor of Government and a specialist in Latin American politics and the US Foreign Policy toward Latin America and ask: what next for Cuba and the regime? 

December 2024 is the 10th anniversary of Obama's decision to normalize relations with the nation, and now Cuba's Miguel Diaz Canel has declared that his country is now in a "wartime economy." 

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Specialists on Latin America are hopeful that the region will play a more central role in President Trump's foreign policy agenda. However, how does the importance of Latin America rank regarding the US pulling back from Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East? Can Trump's advisors have a unified view of US policy towards Latin America or can we expect a foreign policy forged through a prism of migration and drugs alone? 

This week on The LatinNews podcast we speak to Tom Shannon, formerly undersecretary of state for political affairs in the US Department of State, US ambassador to Brazil, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and  special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. 

In a conversation that gallops across Latin America addressing questions from migration to Lithium mines and autocrats to trade tariffs, Ambassador Shannon talks about the US's strategic partnerships, Donald Trump's desire to be a "prosperity president" over a "war president," and the pragmatism of various regional players. 

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There are approximately 150 gangs in Haiti and between them have killed ten thousand people over three years, they control 80 per cent of Port au Prince and recent massacres have stunned even the most hardened observers. Presently there are 400 security personnel from Kenya, deployed in the country as a UN mission to support Haiti's police force, with a further 600 more due in November. The Kenyan force is underfunded and understaffed and the humanitarian tragedy for the Haitian people is set to continue.  

On the LatinNews podcast this week, we speak to Renata Segura, Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for Crisis Group and Diego Da Rin, Haiti Analyst for Crisis Group about their thoughts on the wide-scale gang violence, the former deep links between political and business elites and these gangs and the possibilities for the transitional government in controlling the situation. Will there be elections in Haiti in 2025? 

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On this week's LatinNews Podcast, we explore the themes of urban mobility, transport infrastructure, and social inequities in Latin American cities, and discover why cities in the region serve as creative urban incubators.

We speak with Dr. Daniel Oviedo, Associate Professor at UCL's Development Planning Unit and an expert on economic and spatial inequalities in urban environments, about what can be done to make Latin American cities more inclusive, provide better opportunities for vulnerable populations, and improve social policy.

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By all accounts, Bernardo Arévalo was not expected to win Guatemala's 2023 presidential election. The shock of his victory took the Guatemalan establishment by surprise, and his win has been described by Edgar Ortiz, an expert in constitutional law and political risk in Guatemala, and our guest this week, as "a glitch in the matrix."

In his efforts to address Guatemala's widespread institutional corruption, rampant extortion, and poverty reduction, Arévalo has faced stiff resistance from the Pacto de Corruptos and Consuelo Porras, the current Attorney General. Arévalo recognises the need to modernise and democratise the Guatemalan state, but with only 23 out of 160 seats in Congress, Ortiz argues that the president's democratic approach may be too idealistic. Simply acting democratically, Ortiz warns, will not bring about change in the face of an abusively legalistic regime determined to maintain the status quo.

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China's engagement with Latin America is a complex and multifaceted relationship that is both broad and substantial. The PRC's use of commercial tools and instruments of State to create a global economic order that functions to its benefit has not gone unnoticed. 

So, this week on The LatinNews Podcast, we speak to Dr Evan Ellis, Latin American Research Professor at the US Army War College about China's goals, their support of illiberal regimes in the region, their ability to control risk and the APEC summit in Peru this November, before the G20 meeting in Brazil. 

Tune in for a far-reaching look at China's interests and influences in Latin America from Mexico to Argentina.

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How did Mexico get here? While all eyes are on the growing civil war within the Sinaloa Cartel, between those loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was arrested on July 25, and the Chapitos, accused of betraying him, in order to understand current events in Mexico's fluid drugs trade, it's necessary to step back and take all of the information in careful context.  

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we speak to Benjamin Smith, Professor of Latin American History at the University of Warwick and author of: "The Dope: the Real Story of the Mexican Drugs Trade," about the reasons behind the fragmentation of the entities in the drugs trade, inefficient government policy, what we can expect going forwards under President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum and how she might fare with a Trump or Harris presidency in the United States.

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Bolivians go to the polls on 1 December 2024 in a referendum to decide on the removal of fuel subsidies and to define whether to admit continuous or discontinuous presidential re-election. As if this weren't enough, on the same date, there are also judicial elections and another challenge to be clarified in the referendum is the shortage of dollars in the country. 

Everything points to a significant clash of politics and personalities between the current embattled President Luis Arce and former president Evo Morales as we gear up for the first round of presidential elections in August 2025. 

On the LatinNews podcast this week, we talk to Dr John Crabtree, research associate at the Latin American Centre at the University of Oxford, associate of the Politics Department at Brookes University in Oxford, region head for Latin America at Oxford Analytica Ltd. and author of: "Business Power and the State in the Central Andes. Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru in Comparison," published by University of Pittsburgh Press.

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In theory, sanctions are designed to force governments to defend business interests, restore or seek democracy, respect human rights, protect the environment, fight corruption and tackle international crime and Latin America - according to a new report - is disproportionately targeted. 

"Sanctions in Latin America: the Regrettable Rise of a World of Prohibitions," a new report authored by Andrew Thompson a Latin America Analyst addresses the types of sanctions placed on countries and individuals or companies and groups in the region and the increasingly complex manners by which they are evaded. 

Tune in to hear from Andrew Thompson, his thoughts on the long-running sanctions placed on Cuba, those on Nicaragua and Venezuela and the reasons why they are mainly US-imposed.

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we look at what is being done to resolve the long standing conflict between the Chilean government and the Mapuche indigenous people, inhabitants of parts of south-central Chile, who have suffered from a policy of "pacification" which resulted in a tragic history of exterminations and displacement. 

Tracing its roots back to the time of Chile's independence from Spain in 1810, the Mapuche conflict has evolved over time and there is now an increase in violent acts as militant Mapuche groups seek greater recognition and rights to ancestral lands. 

The magnitude of the challenge is not lost on President Boric who launched a commission in 2023 to find a solution. So, how can Chile address this long standing historical debt to the Mapuche? 

Joining us on the podcast is Dr Pablo Policzer, Associate Professor of Political Science and former director of the Latin American Research Centre at the University of Calgary in Canada who provides us with contexts from the very beginning of the conflict to the current day. 

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Colombia’s cluster of armed conflicts seem interminable on the surface but President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftwing premier and a former guerrilla himself, has made Total Peace (Paz Total) a cornerstone policy of his government in an attempt to pull the nation from continual asymmetrical conflicts scattered all about the territory. 
 
And while Petro’s approval rating sits at a perilous 32% at the half-way point of his tenure, behind the scenes, Total Peace, a sequence of parallel dialogues conducted with each warring faction, from left wing guerrillas to organized crime syndicates, may just yield some positive results. 
 
On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we talk to Andrei Gómez Súarez, a Senior Researcher at the University of Winchester and General Director of Rodeemos el Dialogo, the Anglo Colombian peacebuilding organizing association and hear his take on Total Peace and how this policy may be showing some significant advances despite press reports to the contrary.  

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The Mexican electorate made history on 2 June by electing the country's first woman president in Claudia Sheinbaum, former Mexico City mayor, scientist, academic and protege of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Much has been reported about Sheinbaum's possible difficulty in distancing herself from AMLO's influence, but ironically, rather than giving her some freedom to pursue her own policies, her supermajority in Congress will mean that she is almost obliged to continue her predecessor's reform agenda. 

On the LatinNews podcast this week, we discuss the relevance of the election results and what these mean for the country's short and medium-term outlooks. We ask Mónica Serrano, PhD in International Relations from Oxford University, Professor of International Studies at the Colegio de México, and Member of the Board of the United Nations University, about President-elect Sheinbaum and her policies regarding security, health, education and economic opportunities in the country.

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On this week's LatinNews Podcast, we discuss the reach and main characteristics of the Tren de Aragua criminal group, from its beginnings in the Tocorón prison in Venezuela, to its spread through South America.

We speak to Chris Dalby, director of the World of Crime media company and publishing and expert on organized crime, about the reasons for the Tren de Aragua's startling growth, adaptability and violence. 

The Tren de Aragua currently control a broad criminal portfolio of  crimes including drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, migrant smuggling, trafficking of women for sexual exploitation and kidnapping, among others.

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we take a look at how Jamaica has turned its economy around to start enjoying strong growth, low unemployment, reductions in debt burdens and attracting investors. 

Marla Dukharan, a renowned economist and advisor on the Caribbean provides us with an impartial analysis of Jamaica's success story. And, while we can celebrate these advances, there are looming challenges for the island, in climate change and security, ahead. 

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Murder rates in Brazil have fallen under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, but surveys show that people believe violence to have increased in the country. There is little trust in the police and judicial system, 64,2 million live in households with food insecurity, there have been more than 4 million cases of dengue in the first four months of 2024 alone, so how can Lula reduce the massive inequalities in Brazilian society, combat organized crime run from prisons and address poverty? 

On The LatinNews Podcast this week we speak to Graham Denyer Willis, Professor of Global Politics and Society in the department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, how can Brazil address its historical condition to violence and poverty?

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On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we discuss the myriad of challenges facing a new government in Panama. Outgoing president Laurentino Cortizo is immensely unpopular and the victorious candidate in May's presidential elections will have to face up to growing public unrest due to corruption, the stuttering economy, climate change and its effects on the Panama Canal, mass migrations and the urgent need to find new resources for the country. 
  
 We speak to Carlos Guevara-Mann, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Master of Science in International Affairs at Florida State University at the Republic of Panama, to provide us with an in-depth look at the challenges ahead for Panama. 

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