The Americas Quarterly Podcast

Since Donald Trump’s election there have been fireworks between him and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum. President-elect Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25 percent as two leaders embark...

Donald Trump’s second presidency will likely bring an even stronger focus on Latin America than his first term did. Trump talked often about Latin America in the campaign, mainly through the lens of i...

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has an approval rating of about 50%. Unemployment in the country is at its lowest level in a decade and the economy is expected to grow about 3% this year...

Latin America is the world's breadbasket. The region is now the source of more than 60% of the world’s soy, almost half its corn and more than a quarter of its beef. At the same time, about 28% o...

Although Democrats still lead among Latinos, Republicans have grown their share of support among that community in the last two elections. Looking ahead to the upcoming contest between Donald Trump an...

Claudia Sheinbaum will take office as Mexico's new president next week, on October 1, 2024. Often described as a technocrat, she also supports some of current President AMLO's more controver...

Javier Milei has so far succeeded in making drastic changes to Argentina's economic policies. In this episode we evaluate what has worked and what hasn't, and who have been the winners and l...

The entry of Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential race has completely transformed the election. In this episode we ask what we can expect from her Latin America policy were she to win in November. H...

Since the election on July 28 Nicolás Maduro has unleashed a wave of repression not seen in Venezuela before. The question on everyone's mind is, what now? Will Venezuela move further down the pa...

Ecuador’s young president Daniel Noboa is engaged in a tough battle with organized crime groups that paralyzed the country earlier this year. It’s been six months since that dramatic series of events....

Gustavo Petro is halfway through his presidential term in Colombia. The first leftist president in the country's modern history faced suspicion from the political and economic establishment from ...

Voters throughout Latin America are craving solutions to the spread of organized crime. In today's episode, we’ll look in detail at how Nayib Bukele executed the crackdown on gangs in El Salvador...

In Brazil, unemployment is at a record low, inflation is under control and growth projections are being revised up. However, the Lula administration is having a hard time moving forward with expected ...

Twice a year the AQ Podcast takes stock of Latin America’s economies — what the region is doing well and where the challenges are. There is good news — inflation below OECD levels, for example, but gr...

Venezuelans are scheduled to vote for president on July 28th. In today’s episode, we look at the state of the negotiations between the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, assess how inc...

Claudia Sheinbaum's victory in the Mexican elections was expected, but the 30-point margin surprised many and gave her and the Morena coalition a mandate like few others in Latin America’s recent...

Peru's story in the past 20 years has gone from fast growth and poverty reduction to fractious politics and a dwindling economy. In this episode, Alfredo Thorne, a former finance minister (2016-2...

Panama’s president-elect José Raúl Mulino assumes control of a country struggling with challenges that pertain not only to its population but to many other countries as well. Climate change is affecti...

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In an attempt to gauge what another Joe Biden or Donald Trump administration would mean for policy toward Latin America, the AQ Podcast is bringing in people with intimate knowledge of both camps. In ...

Since Javier Milei took office in December, life has become even more difficult in Argentina. Real salaries have fallen by more than 20% since December. Inflation has lowered, but is still running hig...

Brazil's economy performed better than expected last year, expanding almost 3%. But in 2024 the outlook is more complex, as last year's sources of growth are not expected to perform in the s...

The Venezuelan dictatorship is preparing to hold an election on July 28th. Despite signs that the race will not be free or fair, the opposition is willing to participate. In this episode, we dive into...

Organized crime has in recent years begun to affect formerly calm countries like Chile and Ecuador, while remaining strong in places such as Mexico and Brazil. In this episode, an analysis of recent c...

Less than three months away from Mexico's elections, many analysts see it as a given that Claudia Sheinbaum, the frontrunner, is likely to win. Sheinbaum’s biggest asset is the endorsement of the...

The goal of building ties between global south countries has driven foreign policy in Latin America and elsewhere in recent years. In this episode we dive into what that has amounted to. What have bee...

Political instability persists in Peru. This week, Prime Minister Alberto Otarola resigned and Congress is expected to decide if it will remove the members of the Junta Nacional de Justicia, a body th...

Since he took office in January 2023 Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been extremely active on the global stage, traveling frequently and offering himself as a mediator on big issues l...

LGBTQ+ rights have been a political battleground between social conservatives and progressives throughout Latin America. While some countries set the standards for greater freedoms at the beginning of...

Javier Milei came into office in Argentina promising radical changes. Once there, Milei moved quickly and aggressively – through decrees and an “omnibus” bill sent to Congress he pushed changes to mor...

Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, and polls show him with a chance of winning the election in November. With that in mind, in this episode we try to gauge what Trump 2.0 would entail...

Ecuador has become a critical front in the battle against criminal groups in Latin America. The country's 36-year-old president, Daniel Noboa, has tried to exert authority by arresting thousands ...

Eight years ago, a consortium led by ExxonMobil discovered offshore oil in Guyana now believed to total at least 11 billion barrels. As a result, Guyana now has more oil reserves per capita than any o...

The images coming out of Ecuador in the past week were just the latest reminder of the extraordinary power of drug cartels in Latin America. Despite efforts by many governments, the production of coca...

In 2023 Latin America’s economies performed better than analysts expected. 2024 also promises growth, although the picture will vary a lot by country. On today’s podcast, we’ll look at which may perfo...

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, the challenges ahead of him loomed large. A year on, the economy has grown more than expected, at 3%, and his administration has passed a hi...

Post-electoral tensions in Guatemala and the territorial spat between Guyana and Venezuela have the Western Hemisphere on alert. We speak to someone uniquely positioned to provide insight into these c...

One year on from the political crisis that engulfed Peru in December 2022, with protests almost daily on the streets of Lima, the country is still facing a staggering number of risks in both politics ...

Since being elected on November 19, Javier Milei has changed the tone of some of the more radical policy proposals he campaigned on. He has backtracked on his aggressive rhetoric toward some of Argent...

This past week, we started to get a sense of what Mexico's June 2024 general elections will look like. Samuel García, the young governor of Nuevo León, Mexico's industrial powerhouse, announ...

Chile’s new constitutional proposal is ready and will be put to a plebiscite on Dec. 17. The document was received earlier week by President Gabriel Boric after a mostly right-wing  Constitutional Cou...

After a decade of negative or meager economic expansion, Brazil's GDP is expected to increase by 3.2% in 2023. Significant reforms, such as tax reform, are being discussed, and a modern, green ec...

Amid Argentina's worst economic crisis in more than 20 years, the self-described anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei will now face Economy Minister Sergio Massa in a December 19 runoff to become Arge...

In this special edition of the Americas Quarterly Podcast, an interview with Juan S. Gonzalez, the White House's top Latin America official, about the potentially transformative deal announced th...

After a “lost decade” that saw economies stagnate across Latin America and the Caribbean, a new optimism appears to take hold in some areas. 2023 will be the third consecutive year the IMF and other m...

Venezuela is reaching a critical moment as the country's opposition prepares to choose its candidate in primaries on October 22. The winner will run against Nicolás Maduro in a general election n...

Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales has announced he will run again in 2025, likely competing with the current head of the executive, Luis Arce, whom Morales helped elect. The decision is splitting...

Ecuador is facing many of the same issues we see across Latin America today. Long one of the region’s most peaceful countries, it has recently seen a daunting increase in violence, as international dr...

Mexico’s economy is shifting into a higher gear in 2023, thanks in part to stronger than expected investment from nearshoring. This July, we saw a historic moment as Mexico passed China to become the ...

This month will mark the 50th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet’s coup in Chile. President Gabriel Boric has made the commemoration of that tragic chapter in Latin American history a major moment in his...