The LatinNews Podcast

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.

Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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.

Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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.

Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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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Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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 is 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 US. 

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.

Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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 The LatinNews Podcast 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. 

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.

Follow LatinNews for analysis on economic, political, and security developments in Latin America & the Caribbean.

• Twitter: @latinnewslondon
• LinkedIn: Latin American Newsletters
• Facebook: @latinnews1967

For more insightful, expert-led analysis on Latin America's political and economic landscape, read our reports for free with a 14-day trial. Get full access to our entire portfolio.

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 who provides us with contexts from the very beginning of the conflict to the current day.