The double earthquakes of June 24 accentuated a year of profound change in Venezuela. What was already a significant undertaking by the interim government in collaboration with the U.S. administration to address years of economic mismanagement and infrastructural deterioration, has become even more urgent in the face of a tragedy that has claimed thousands of lives and livelihoods while causing economic damages of up to $37 billion, per early estimates.

But, as the world rallies in support of Venezuela, can this disaster present an opportunity to attract the resources needed to accelerate the country’s long-term reconstruction? In this episode of Latin America in Focus, AS/COA’s Luisa Leme talks to representatives from two organizations that have been responding to Venezuela’s humanitarian and financial challenges for years: the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and CAF – The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Rafael Velasquez Garcia, who leads the IRC’s emergency response in Venezuela, explains the earthquakes add another 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian attention to the almost 8 million whom aid organizations had identified before June 24. Combined with rebuilding thousands of structures and repairing the water and power supply, it’s a financing challenge CAF’s Ángel Cárdenas Sosa says multilateral development banks are working around the clock to meet and which will require the support of the public and private sectors.

This episode was produced by Associate Producer Khalea Robertson. Luisa Leme is the podcast’s executive producer and this week’s host. 

See information on how to donate to CAF’s Recovery and Reconstruction Fund: https://www.caf.com/en/specials/recovery-and-reconstruction-fund-for-venezuela/ and how to support the IRC’s work in Venezuela: https://www.rescue.org/article/how-help-survivors-earthquakes-venezuela

For more details on the earthquakes, the response from U.S. and regional governments, and other organizations you can support, read AS/COA Online’s coverage: https://www.as-coa.org/articles/venezuelas-twin-earthquakes-what-happened-relief-efforts-and-how-help

If you enjoyed this episode, write us a review and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Send us feedback: [email protected]   

The music in the podcast is “Norwegian Wood” performed by the C4 Trio for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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On her fourth attempt, Keiko Fujimori is set to finally become Peru’s president. The right-wing former congresswoman will enter the presidential palace having bested her opponent, leftist lawmaker Roberto Sánchez, with just 50.1 percent of valid votes in the June 7 second round.

“Our country is very divided,” says guest Alfredo Thorne, a former Peruvian finance minister, of the country’s third consecutive razor-thin runoff. But he also has optimism for the future his country’s liberal democracy after a decade of high presidential turnover. As Thorne tells AS/COA’s Carin Zissis in this episode of Latin America in Focus, Peru’s Congress will have a Senate for the first time in 30 years and the fact that Fujimori will need to reach across the aisle “means that the true embryo of democracy is in that Congress.”

On the trade front, the former World Bank senior economist predicts that Fujimori’s administration is unlikely to break from Beijing even as it seeks to “keep fluid relations with Washington.” As for the crucially steadying role of Peru’s Central Bank, Thorne remains confident in its institutional strength, even with the potential departure of its revered chief, Julio Velarde.

This episode was produced by Executive Producer Luisa Leme and Associate Producer Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is your host.  

See AS/COA Online’s ongoing coverage of Peru’s 2026 election: https://www.as-coa.org/articles/peru-elects-2026-ongoing-coverage-presidential-race And bookmark our election guide to keep up with all the key races this year in Latin America: https://www.as-coa.org/2026

Plus, read more of Alfredo Thorne’s analysis on Peru’s politics and economy in Americas Quarterly: https://americasquarterly.org/aq-author/alfredo-e-thorne/

If you enjoyed this episode, write us a review and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Send us feedback: [email protected]  

The music in the podcast are "Inti Raymi" by Curi Cachimuel and “Tempestad” performed by Las Tipas for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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The Colombian electorate sent a clear message with the two candidates they sent to the June 21 presidential runoff: they are no longer interested in politics as usual. With far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist Senator Iván Cepeda concentrating 85 percent of the first-round vote, the country’s traditional center and center-right parties have receded to the background.

“[Colombia’s] political and ideological spectrum is now wider than it was before,” says Dr. Sandra Borda, a Bogotá-based professor at the Universidad de los Andes, adding that the country’s relatively new left-right divide has brought it closer to polarized political contexts more familiar to the rest of the region. 

In this episode of Latin America in Focus, the prominent political commentator talks to AS/COA’s Carin Zissis about the influence of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, ex-President Álvaro Uribe, and U.S. President Donald Trump on the current and future political discourse. And with voters focused on security and economic issues, Dr. Borda analyzes the choice between de la Espriella’s mano dura and Cepeda’s promises to carry on Petro’s leftist agenda.

This episode was produced by Executive Producer Luisa Leme and Associate Producer Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is your host. 
If you enjoyed this episode, write us a review and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Send us feedback: [email protected]

The music in the podcast is “Dame la Mano Juancho” performed by Shangó Dely for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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From Mexico’s Cuba ties to Washington's persistent tariff pledges, points of friction keep coming up between Mexico and the United States, reaching a crescendo last month when the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 Mexican officials, including a sitting governor from President Claudia Sheinbaum’s own party.

"U.S.-Mexican relations are probably in their worst moment that I can remember since the 1970s,” the former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge Castañeda tells AS/COA's Carin Zissis. “Never were there so many fronts open at the same time."

In this episode, Dr. Castañeda, a long-time Latin America expert and author of more than 15 books on foreign affairs, breaks down not only what's at stake for bilateral ties, but covers Mexico's relationship with Cuba and the U.S. policy approach to the island.

This episode was produced by Executive Producer Luisa Leme. Carin Zissis is your host.

If you enjoyed this episode, write us a review and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Send us feedback: [email protected]

The music in the podcast is “Candombe Jam 1,” by Carlos Quintana, performed for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. https://www.as-coa.org/memberships/engage-americas-society

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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After months of tensions, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump emerged from a May meeting at the White House smiling for the cameras. The leaders, both facing critical elections, sought to project international strength during delicate domestic moments, as they tackled a bilateral trade and security agenda.

“We need to be very careful in interpreting the meeting,” Fernanda Magnotta of the Brazilian Center for International Relations told AS/COA Online’s Luisa Leme, “The differences in agendas and interests between the two governments are structural, and they are there, and they are going to be there.” In this episode, Magnotta breaks down how Washington’s interest in securing the South American country’s rare earths as an alternative to Chinese dependency could facilitate Brasília’s push to resolve trade disputes while avoiding FTO designations on criminal groups operating in Brazilian territory.

“The word that for me defines the meeting and the future of this relationship is sobriety,” said Magnotta, explaining the road forward for bilateral economic ties.

This episode was produced by Executive Producer Luisa Leme and Associate Producer Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is the host.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus and send us feedback at [email protected]. 

For more of Dr. Magnotta’s analysis on this topic, check out her articles in Americas Quarterly on the Trump-Lula relationship https://americasquarterly.org/article/trump-and-lula-think-differently-will-they-find-common-ground/ and the U.S. interest in Brazil’s rare earths. https://americasquarterly.org/article/can-brazil-and-the-u-s-reach-a-deal-on-rare-earths/

The music in the podcast is “Galopada,” by Itiberê Zwarg, performed for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. https://www.as-coa.org/memberships/engage-americas-society

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.  

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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On May 1, a transatlantic trade deal covering 31 countries and a quarter of global GDP comes into effect. Some thought it would never materialize, but after 25 years of off-and-on negotiations, Mercosur and the European Union committed to one of the largest free-trade deals in the world. So why did the two trade blocs to sign on the dotted line? 

“ The reality is that today, given the approach that the United States is taking on trade policy, it really is nudging countries [...] to go ahead and take those risks. Because the risk of doing nothing is much higher than the risk of doing something," says trade expert Kellie Meiman Hock, a senior counselor at McLarty Associates and advisor to COA's Trade Advisory Group. In her return to the podcast, Meiman Hock explains how recent U.S. trade policy  spurred Mercosur and other countries across the hemisphere to diversify their commercial relationships.  

She also covers the wrinkles left for the South American and European trade blocs to iron out in the agreement, and other deals in the pipeline as countries search for stability in a trade landscape she describes to AS/COA Online’s Luisa Leme as “completely unexplored territory.” 

This episode was produced by Luisa Leme with support from Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is the host.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus and send us feedback at [email protected].

Listen to our previous episode with Kellie Meiman Hock on the impact of the Trump administration’s tariff policy on Latin America:
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/latam-focus-trade-and-tensions-latin-america-braces-trumps-tariffs

The music in the podcast is Paulo Moura's "Tarde de Chuva," performed by Cliff Korman Ensemble for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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After a February military operation led to the death of Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera, Mexican authorities searched the cartel leader’s cabin and uncovered logs showing that low-level members of El Mencho’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel earned as little as $140 per week. Many people were surprised by how little the cartel lookouts and hitmen earn, given that their jobs can be, quite literally, deadly. Despite that, the number of people working for these crime groups could fill Estadio Azteca, the stadium where the World Cup kickoff will take place, about two times over.

In this week's episode, Complexity Science Hub’s Dr. Rafael Prieto-Curiel covers why stemming cartel recruitment is crucial for curbing violence in Mexico. The mathematician coauthored a groundbreaking study calculating that, with 175,000 members, cartels represent Mexico’s fifth-largest employer. Moreover, he estimates that they count as the country’s top recruiter, given that they have to repeatedly replenish their ranks following arrests, killings, and disappearances. “They are preventing their own collapse,” he tells AS/COA’s Carin Zissis.

This episode was produced by Khalea Robertson, Luisa Leme, and Camilo Salas. Carin Zissis is the host.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus and send us feedback at [email protected].

Read Dr. Prieto-Curiel's research in Science.

The music in the podcast is performed by Alejandro Escuer and Leandro Díaz Keller for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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When the United States and Argentina signed a bilateral trade deal in February, one part of the agreement turned heads: Washington would be quadrupling the amount of tariff-free beef it would allow to be imported from the South American country.

Historically, the United States, like countries across the world, limits the amount of beef it imports to help promote its domestic ranching industry.

But now, the United States and Europe are opening their markets, just as China, who became the largest consumer of South American beef in recent years, is imposing quotas on the product for the first time.

Argentine trade expert Francisco Resnicoff joins AS/COA Online’s Chase Harrison to talk all things beef. How will new trade pacts and quotas affect the beef market? And what do shifts in the beef industry mean for domestic politics in countries like Argentina?

This episode was produced by Luisa Leme and Camilo Salas. Carin Zissis is the host. 

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Francisco Resnicoff previously joined the podcast to discuss the 2024 G20. Listen to the episode: https://shorturl.at/TYaTY

Find out more about Trump’s policies in Latin America by subscribing to our weekly newsletter covering Washington’s hemispheric policy: www.as-coa.org/dispatch

The music in the podcast is “Chacarera en el aire," performed by Nicolás Fioravanti for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.  

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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Haiti has been without an elected leader since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and a spiraling security crisis threatens to derail plans to hold elections this August.  

In this episode, Romain Le Cour-Grandmaison, director of the Haiti and Caribbean Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, covers bumpy governance transitions and “the triangular relationship between the political sector, economic sector, and violent actors” in Haiti, as well as the role U.S. government’s role in addressing the crisis. Bringing on-the-ground observations of Haiti’s turbulent security context, Le Cour traces the complicated—and uncertain—path to the country’s first election in a decade. And as for the long-term future of Haiti’s democracy, he stressed, “We need to address and dismantle the system that makes the gangs attractive to political and economic actors and vice versa. So basically, we need a justice component.”

This episode was produced by Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is the host. Latin America in Focus’ executive producer is Luisa Leme.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Read Romain Le Cour's article on "Ending Haiti's Criminal Governance Crisis" in Americas Quarterly.

The music in the podcast is "Finesse," performed by Rafa Aslan for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.   

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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Close followers of trade news were waiting for this moment: On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 against President Donald Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to slap tariffs on trade partners around the world. 

Although SCOTUS' decision reined in Trump's tariffs on one front,he soon enough used another piece of legislation, section 122, to impose new global duties. 

“President Trump has a huge trade arsenal at his disposal, and what we're going to be seeing in the next few weeks is the Trump administration using other measures [that are] more procedural but are less legally exposed,” Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies and USMCA expert, told AS/COA Online’s Carin Zissis.

From IEEPA to legal measures like 122, 232, and 301, understanding trade policy can be like speaking another language. Marroquín untangles them all, explaining what the Court decision means for issues like the upcoming USMCA review and the future of trade policy in the region. 

This episode was produced by Luisa Leme. Carin Zissis is the host. 

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access othr episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Diego Marroquín Bitar previously joined the podcast to discuss why corn is a thorny U.S-Mexico trade issue. Listen to the episode: t.ly/yCPW0

Find out more about Trump’s policies in Latin America by subscribing to our weekly newsletter covering Washington’s hemispheric policy, visit: www.as-coa.org/dispatch

The music in the podcast performed by Heloísa Fernandes for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.      

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

Follow us on social media:
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