The 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement was expected to bring an end to more than fifty years of armed conflict and build a sustainable peace. However, the country continues to be rife with violence, discrimination, and exclusion. Although the Peace Agreement’s state of implementation has been subject to academic debates, a critical discussion of the document has been missing. To address this gap, the article

Scion of one of Grenada’s oldest, best-known, most distinguished families, Maurice Rupert Bishop (1944-1983) has been, since his death, inextricably linked with the origins, course and conclusion of the Grenada Revolution (1979-83). This biographical essay attempts to recreate the major events of his personal history, as well as the historical background that shaped his personality. Descendiente de

This article introduces a special issue on Paraguay’s stalled democratization and enduring authoritarian legacies following the fall of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship. Despite formal political reforms, the country remains dominated by elite rule, institutional fragility, and clientelist governance, reinforced by the near-continuous hegemony of the Colorado Party. The article surveys key turning

This paper examines the Dread culture that emerged during and after the Grenada Revolution through the lens of a pro-revolutionary song and memorial inscription to assess how different memories commemorate the event. This paper puts forth the central argument that Dread culture signifies a resistive memory aesthetic that define the people’s experiences with the Grenada Revolution. It locates organic

This article discusses development theories concerning agro-extractivism, providing a perspective from the Global South based on a brief historical and current review of Paraguay’s relationships with international markets These types of relationships are referred to as enclave economies; the concept denotes the exploitation of natural resources without ties (or with very weak ones) to national economies

This article examines the shifting rural social relations in Paraguay’s soybean complex, with a specific focus on the role of farmer cooperatives in the commercialization of Paraguay's agriculture. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the departments of Itapúa and southern Alto Paraná in 2021 and 2022, this paper adopts an agrarian political economy perspective to argue that cooperatives in Paraguay serve

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the Paraguayan Chaco suffered profound social, productive, and ecological transformations due to investments that, through deforestation, expanded the agricultural frontier for the production of livestock and grains. This article analyzes the factors that made the Paraguayan Chaco an attractive location for capitalist expansion as well as the

This article analyzes Paraguayan economic elites and the construction of their political practices, based on the study of three livestock agricultural sector business organizations: the Union of Production Trade Associations, the Rural Association of Paraguay, and the Paraguayan Chamber of Exporters and Marketers of Cereals and Oilseeds. The article examines the political profile of the groups, whose

Clientelism is a deeply ingrained informal political institution in Paraguay and a source of continuity relative to political reforms and social and demographic changes, particularly democratization and the advent of electoral party alternation. This article examines Paraguay’s post-dictatorial politics (1992-2023), engaging with critical juncture and institutional change theory to analyze continuity

Understanding the current situation of Paraguayan contributory social security—particularly, its low coverage, institutional fragmentation, and socioeconomic segmentation—requires considering the role of economic elites in policy implementation. Given the potential effect and influence social protection can have on people’s security, economic autonomy, and income redistribution, this social protection

This article assesses the state of Indigenous rights in Paraguay through the year 2022 to show how latent authoritarianism and agrarian oligarchies threaten to roll back ongoing efforts to support the country's democratic transition. Recent civil society efforts to map Indigenous lands and make georeferenced data about those lands free to access online presuppose that greater transparency about the

The literature on Paraguay’s political regime labels it as an incomplete or flawed democracy without systematically analyzing how Paraguay is actually governed. The concept of multicracy can describe Paraguay’s political organization and analyze Stroessner’s rule and the post-Stronato period. The governability of Paraguay’s democracy is weak, various kratiae (powers) intervene in policymaking, and

This article examines Paraguay’s lack of progress in meeting the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the conceptual framework of state capture. It argues that the current model of economic development, based primarily on soya and meat production, is unsustainable in economic, social, and environmental terms and almost exclusively serves the interests of a small elite. The example

As the weight of the agro-industrial model of agriculture becomes abundantly evident, the role of seeds inserted into either capitalist or agroecological production models has become a central way that scholars and activists conceptualize food sovereignty struggles. This is no less the case in Paraguay, where peasant and Indigenous movements like CONAMURI articulate that having seeds is a political

This article is about Central American asylum seekers from the perspective of dependency theory and Gramscian international relations. It argues that Northern Central American asylum seekers are fleeing the contradictions of the hegemonic US-led neoliberal development model that depends on migration and remittances as its main source of hard currency. This article is grounded in structural/conjectural

The US recently implemented novel spatial strategies of border control that repel asylum seekers to Mexico, forcing them to await the opportunity to request asylum or asylum proceedings. The turning back and expulsion of asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border transforms northern Mexican border cities into spaces of extraterritorial containment where asylum seekers form informal migrant camps and face

Based on a critical geopolitical analysis, this paper addresses the convergence of refugee policies and migration control policies in southern Mexico within the framework of border externalization and internalization. I posit that the border process in this region responds to both political and military interests espoused by the U.S. as well as Mexican governments. The refugee system is a device though

The Spanish asylum system and refugee reception program demonstrate persistent problems involving initial access to asylum and the processing of applications; access to assistance from the reception system; and the process of integration of asylum seekers, which is characterized by social segregation. This article analyzes these issues and seeks to explain them by looking beyond the immediate circumstances

Decision-makers within the US immigration system have long looked skeptically on asylum claims based on persecution by street gangs. We draw on ethnographic research conducted in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to argue that this skepticism and the corresponding legal precedents rely on an incorrect understanding of the issues at stake. Our evidence, considered in light of recent scholarship on violence in

Over the last decade Honduran Garifuna have increasingly appeared among the millions of Central Americans arriving at the US/Mexico border to claim asylum. This is striking because unlike other Hondurans, Garifuna have a long history of largely documented US-bound migration. Recently, however, they have been transformed from transnational migrants into asylum seekers by being caught between “accumulation

Governments deny people’s internationally recognized rights to asylum by preventing them from arriving in territories where they may request asylum and by using case law to restrict eligibility. While research tends to focus on either deflection or restriction tactics, this paper builds on studies that examine the interaction between them. To further examine the interaction between these “bordering”

This paper argues that Venezuela’s hunger crisis was caused by the collapse of the country’s import capacity. Evidence is presented to support the hypothesis that the key driver of the decrease in caloric intake was the decline of more than nine-tenths in oil revenues, which sparked an economic contraction and forced the economy to undertake massive cuts in imports of food and agricultural inputs.

Working as a researcher, expert witness, and refugee shelter worker quickly raises questions of whether such engagements are reinforcing institutions and structures of power that reproduce racism, economic and social inequality, militarization of our borders, and foreign and immigration policies of violence and exclusion. At the same time, engaged methods of research inside institutions such as U.S

This article focuses on how the Mexican state remains unable to protect certain categories of people based on particular identity characteristics. I draw on examples of gang-related corruption within the police and the judiciary, as well as the impact of cultures of violence and impunity on vulnerable categories of citizens, especially women and girls. I also explain some of what expert witnesses can

This article analyzes the experience and construction of meaning by the all-women cabin crews of Aerolíneas Argentinas working through the pandemic during the suspension of commercial operations in 2020. Our study is centered around three themes: the (re)organization of schedules, job uncertainty, and changes in duties. These transformations in the work process generated an increase in the physical

This article addresses the economic and political repercussions of the pandemic on the migrant populations in Iquique, Chile, comparing the experiences of Bolivian and Venezuelan migrants. We assess the forms of resistance they developed to survive the economic, social, and health crises associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic, which each group confronted in a different manner. We approached this from

The COVID-19 pandemic has made historical and contemporary colonial relationships between and within states more fraught. This complexity is apparent within the research process itself, adding a new dimension to debates on positionality and the politics of knowledge production. Drawing on critical approaches to International Relations, and in dialogue with an emerging literature on the implications

This article analyzes the public manifestos made among civil society during the first wave of Covid-19 in Brazil. Data collection took place between April and August 2020, and gathered a sample made up of documents in various formats, which were drawn up by a wide range of actors who voice very different ideas and themes. The data analysis allowed us to identify three important shifts: these actors

The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive human suffering just as much as it heightened pre-existing socio-economic and political issues. Brazil, where over 700,000 people perished, offers one of the starkest cases as Black and Indigenous lives were particularly neglected through a hands-off approach. While commonly characterized as mismanagement, we argue that the Bolsonaro administration’s strategy instead

Desde la pandemia, América Latina experimentó un drástico crecimiento del número de trabajadores que se emplean en forma remota para empresas extranjeras. No obstante, los mismos cambios que facilitaron esta expansión del teletrabajo internacional aceleran la competencia global entre trabajadores, lo que junto con la crisis que atraviesa la industria del software, genera despidos y caída salarial.

Based on 140 interviews with respondents in six Indigenous communities in Alaska, New Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, this phenomenological study focuses on Indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Flora and Flora’s Community Capitals Framework, as well as Emery and Flora’s concept of the spiral of Community Capitals assets, this article explores both the challenges and coping mechanisms

How can we understand the variation in countries’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis in the context of income protection policies for vulnerable families? This article provides a comparative presentation and discussion of the measures put in place in Brazil and Chile in 2020. We argue that the similarities and differences in the strategies adopted are largely due to the trajectories both in

Chagas disease, a major public health concern in Latin America, has become a global public health challenge. Switzerland is considered an example in providing healthcare access to migrants, however, Chagas disease remains largely underdiagnosed in the estimated three to four thousand Latin American migrants infected. This paper discusses the sociopolitical and economic factors that contribute to the

Around two decades after Argentina’s 2001 crisis, the abortion rights movement flourished, becoming a powerful force against obstacles to reproductive justice in the country and mobilizing massive numbers of people from all walks of life to successfully demand the legalization of abortion. The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion was launched in 2005, but the seeds for

Based on an ethnographic study conducted in Catalonia, this paper analyzes the links between migration, precarity, and health among Bolivian women affected by Chagas disease. In a context characterized by precarious migratory conditions tied to the growing internationalization of reproductive labor and these women workers’ insertion into the domestic sphere, an analysis of the political economy of

Global systems of capitalist production shape local experiences with health and disease, as well as approaches to infectious disease control. Through participants’ descriptions of health-disease experiences, I explore an alternate route for the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, beyond a strict focus on vector control. I identify three local enunciations of

This article analyzes cultural production in theaters across three pivotal historical moments from the 1980s to the present, including the theater as ruins, refuge, and resistance. It begins with the theater in ruins as depicted in the 1986 film, The Black Sheep, by the legendary playwright, director, and filmmaker, Román Chalbaud, in which a commune of artists, outcasts, and misfits squat in the theater

While much of the literature on populism has focused on the role of the populist leader in creating political polarization, this work asks what role context, particularly anti-populism, plays in exacerbating the often vitriolic nature of populist rhetoric. This work explores this question by examining the speeches of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, from 1998 to 2012. It argues that Chavez’s populist

The 2010s could be defined for Latin America as a period of multiple and interrelated transitions. The decay of the “Pink Tide” and the reemergence of different strands of right-wing, authoritarian, and populist political projects was shaped by the impacts of convergent social and ecological crises in the region, particularly in the disputes over extractivism and environmental affairs. This paper examines

This article examines how the political construction of food markets acts as a strategy for collective action with regards to three rural movements in Brazil: CONTAG, the MST, and Rede Ecovida. Each used food markets to confront the effects of a regime change that occurred with the rise of a populist authoritarian government. The research for this article was conducted between October 2017 and December

This article analyzes the construction of the imaginary created by the Brazilian Indigenous Movement against the historical representations imposed by the non-indigenous, of disappearance, and backwardness. It is based on the study of the speeches of the assemblies of Indigenous chiefs between 1974 and 1977. The crisis of institutional Indigenism, military authoritarianism, and developmentalism announced

The paper explores activists’ political organization strategies and obstacles they faced in achieving consensus during the feminist protests that exploded in Chilean universities between April and May 2018. Drawing on the intra-movement dynamics literature and analyzing qualitative data about the mobilization in one of the oldest universities of the country, the research sheds light on the movement's

Debates about the link between the economic conjuncture and the fall of the so-called Pink Tide in Latin America often focus on the role played by raw material exports. However, this article shows that import dependency also played a significant role in the decline of the Argentinian iteration of the Pink Tide, also known as Kirchnerism. First, it analyses how imported consumer goods contributed to

This article addresses the struggle for the recovery of communal lands by groups inhabiting the Chimalapas region in the municipality of San Miguel Chimalapa, Oaxaca, between the 1970s and 1990s. I focus on the process of political subjectivation (or political subject formation), understood here as the sphere of politicization under which these sectors articulated discourses and practices of insubordination

This article discusses governance in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), particularly the possibility of formulating arrangements capable of confronting the effects of the ocean grabbing process in fishing territories. Through the articulation of experiences in MPAs in Cuba and Brazil and the content analysis of technical-scientific documents produced on the daily governance of these areas, legal frameworks

The pandemic deepened social and educational inequality for Afro-descendants and indigenous people in Latin America and the Caribbean. A regional analytical overview with a focus on Brazil and on the social and educational challenges faced by these people and the epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical alternatives for the inclusion of racialized persons during the pandemic. The analysis points

San José, a Zapotec community in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico, has built certain autonomies over time while challenging the territorial policies designed by the Mexican state. This article goes beyond the focus on autonomies as jurisdictional rights recognized by the state and analyzes the de facto instances elaborated by communities to build economies as a support for self-determination. By strengthening

From the 1990’s to the present, Latin America has been, as no other region in the world, a laboratory of autonomies —explicit or implicitly framed as such— situated in the cycle of anti-neoliberal struggles. Faced with this historical-political context, in this text we re-examine the conceptualization and theorizations around the idea of autonomy. Based on a review of the major Latin American conceptual

This article is an inquiry into the politics of food in Venezuela, addressing the question: What do food politics tell us about broader forms, organizations, and relations of power in Venezuela today? By digging into the past, it sheds light on the challenges and opportunities at present, examining: a) The ways in which food, through its material and symbolic power, has served as a vehicle for processes

How do Indigenous and peasant political paradigms interact? This essay examines the relationship between Indigenous-ontopolitical critiques of development and peasant-oriented demands for alternative development in the Guatemalan defense of territory (DT), an Indigenous-led alliance against extractive development. Drawing on politically-engaged ethnographic and historical fieldwork, I argue that theories

This article employs Critical Development Studies to analyze the international political economy of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and address how the main elements that sustain and characterize it turn it into “another brick in the wall” of the hegemonic development paradigm (neoliberal, neo-developmentalist, neocolonial, privatized, inequitable, and environmentally predatory). It further