On Thursday, May 6, an early-morning police raid in a Rio de Janeiro favela left 28 dead, including one officer, sparking allegations of extrajudicial and arbitrary executions and returning Brazil’s brutal history of police violence to the public spotlight.
In Colombia this week, demonstrations against a government tax reform proposal evolved into widespread general protests—fueled by the economic and social desperation provoked by the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic—that have been met with brutal repression from state security forces.
This week, new developments came to light in the decades-long saga of the El Mozote massacre, one of the most high-profile incidents of human rights abuses in modern Central American history.
Tensions have risen between the United States and Brazil ahead of President Joe Biden’s virtual Leader’s Summit on climate, scheduled to conclude today.
Ahead of presidential and congressional elections scheduled for Sunday, Peru is battling a record spike in COVID-19 deaths, underscoring the public health challenges that the next administration will be forced to address and potentially setting the stage for additional surges, as millions of Peruvians gather at the polls.
As Brazil spirals deeper into the epidemiological crisis caused by COVID-19, a new political dilemma has also arisen in the South American nation. Following President Jair Bolsonaro’s sudden and unexpected firing of Minister of Defense General Fernando Azevedo e Silva last Monday, the chiefs of the Brazilian army, navy, and air force all announced their resignations in response.
In Latin America, International Women’s Month focused heavily on issues related to femicide and gender-based violence. On March 8, International Women’s Day saw large, defiant gatherings and protests against gender violence and inequality. In the weeks that followed, continued protests, reports, and court cases capped off a year in which COVID-19 profoundly affected women across the region.
Prosecutors claim that former President Morales’ removal constituted a coup, accusing Áñez and numerous other officials of having masterminded a plot to oust Bolivia’s first Indigenous president.
A supreme court judge in Brazil restored former President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva’s political rights, annulling a series of corruption convictions against the left-wing icon and all but ensuring that Lula will challenge incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.
