Shows / The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The AQ Podcast is a conversation on politics and economics in Latin America hosted by Brian Winter, contributing editor for Americas Quarterly
Episodes
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Ecuador’s Difficult Battle with Organized Crime
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Gustavo Petro: The Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality
Gustavo Petro is halfway through his presidential term in Colombia. The first leftist president in the country's modern history faced suspicion from the…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Bukele Model: Why It’s Hard to Replicate
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 Americas Quarterly Podcast
Brazil: A Tough Moment for Lula 3
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Our Mid-Year Update on Latin America’s Economies
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 —…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Venezuela’s Election: How It Could Play Out
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
What To Expect From Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
A Surprising Case for Optimism in Peru
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Panama: New President, Global Challenges
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
What Biden 2.0 Would Mean for Latin America Policy
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Why Argentines Seem to Be Sticking With Milei
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Warning Lights for Brazil’s Economy?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Venezuela: Maduro's and the Opposition’s Strategies
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Shifting Sands of Organized Crime in Latin America
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum's Election to Lose?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
South-South Ties: Hype And Reality
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
An X-Ray of Peru’s Tinderbox
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 Americas Quarterly Podcast
Brazil’s Big Year on the Global Stage
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Today’s LGBTQ+ Politics in Latin America
LGBTQ+ rights have been a political battleground between social conservatives and progressives throughout Latin America. While some countries set the standards…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Argentina: Javier Milei Runs into Resistance
Javier Milei came into office in Argentina promising radical changes. Once there, Milei moved quickly and aggressively – through decrees and an “omnibus” bill…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
What Trump Would Mean for Latin America Policy
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Ecuador’s Crossroads: Can Noboa Succeed?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Guyana, Oil and the Resource Curse
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
How to Think About Latin America's Security Crisis
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
LatAm’s Economies in 2024: What to Expect
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Lula 3 One Year On
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Guatemala, Guyana and Other Crises: A View From the OAS
Post-electoral tensions in Guatemala and the territorial spat between Guyana and Venezuela have the Western Hemisphere on alert. We speak to someone uniquely…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Peru’s Perpetual Crisis
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Javier Milei's Challenges
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Mexico's Elections Begin to Take Shape
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Chile: Gabriel Boric's Conundrum
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Brazil: The Big Picture
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Massa vs. Milei: Who Is the Favorite in Argentina?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The White House’s Juan Gonzalez on the Venezuela-U.S. Deal
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Is Latin America’s Lost Decade Ending?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Making Sense of Venezuela's Elections
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Bolivia: The Return of Evo Morales?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Who's Who in Ecuador's Election
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Mexico’s Moment?
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Chile: What the 50th Coup Anniversary Tells Us About Politics Today
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…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Is Bolsonaro Done? New Dynamics in Brasília
Recent scandals involving former President Jair Bolsonaro have left Brazil’s conservative movement in a state of flux. Meanwhile, the Lula administration is…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
A Turning Point for Latin America’s Economies
This is a critical moment for Latin America’s economies, with analysts foreseeing better than expected GDP growth this year in countries like Brazil and…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Argentina: Javier Milei’s Moment?
The radical libertarian economist Javier Milei placed first in Argentina’s primary election, upsetting the two-party system of the past 20 years. Milei…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Why Latin America Is So Vulnerable to Cyberattacks
Latin America is the world’s most vulnerable region to cyberattacks, according to one study, and has suffered several dramatic hacks recently in Argentina…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Guatemalan Democracy on the Brink, and the U.S. Response
Bernardo Arévalo, an academic, former diplomat, and son of a famed revolutionary president surprisingly made it to Guatemala's election runoff, upsetting the…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Argentina’s Election: It’s (Finally) On
Argentina's presidential elections will take place in October, but the country is now fully in campaign mode. In this episode, AQ's Brian Winter and María…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
What Happened To Anti-Corruption Efforts In Latin America
In the 2010s, corruption investigations dominated news headlines in Latin America, from Lava Jato in Brazil to La Línea in Guatemala. Nowadays, prosecutors…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Ups And Downs Of Lula's First Six Months
It’s been a mixed bag so far for Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after six months back in office, with a better than expected economy, but a tough…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Nearshoring In The Americas: Hype And Reality
Global supply chains have become much more fluid in the past year, and some of this itinerant money is making its way to Latin America. Mexico has benefitted…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
A Sober Look at Colombia
The Colombian political world has been shaken by the eruption of a scandal that led the country's attorney general to launch an investigation into reports of…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Election Fever in Mexico
The race to replace President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico is starting to heat up. While his party, Morena, is in good position to win, a competition…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
China's Learning Process In Latin America
It’s been two decades since China started to trade and invest heavily in Latin America, and in that time, the terms of the relationship have changed. There has…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Politics Of Migration In Latin America
Migration in the Americas is not a new story, but it is evolving fast. Countries that used to be senders of migrants are now also becoming recipients – Chile…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Venezuela: A View From The Ground
From the outside looking in, it’s hard to understand what is happening in Venezuela these days. On the one hand Nicolás Maduro seems stronger than he’s been in…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Explaining Chile’s U-Turn
Chile’s politics have been turned upside down once again, as an election last Sunday gave the political right almost full control over the writing of a new…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
The Importance of Paraguay
What happens in Paraguayan politics matters not only to people who live there, but for the rest of the region and the world. It’s a member of Mercosur, at a…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Lula’s Foreign Policy and What It Means for Latin America
The return of Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a potential game-changer for Latin America. No other leader in the region is as experienced and…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Guatemala’s Suspiciously Status Quo Election
In Guatemala, economic growth has done little to improve poverty and inequality. Violence continues to drive people to leave the country. Democracy is also in…
- The Americas Quarterly Podcast
Bukelismo Rising: Security Versus Freedom In Latin America
El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele's hard-line security policies have contributed to a decline in homicides and extortion in El Salvador, but at a very high cost to…