Debates
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The outsider era: reaching power and learning how to hold on to it
De La Espriella and Milei represent two stages of the same underdog challenge: coming to power by breaking with the system and then learning to govern it without losing the identity that brought them there.
The power of nature and the fragility of the state
Natural disasters also put the state to the test: prevention, institutional capacity, and resource management can determine the extent of their consequences.
What if women had their own political party?
Latin American politics faces an unresolved question: should women transform political parties from within or build a feminist alternative of their own?
Ecology and the Night of the Long Batons: Scars and new threats
Sixty years after the Night of the Long Batons, the persecution of ecological science is resurfacing in new forms. Denialism, underfunding, and surveillance once again threaten the production of environmental knowledge in Latin America.
The invisible map of inequality: What child malnutrition reveals in Latin America
Chronic child malnutrition is often understood as a problem of food and nutrition. However, it also reveals something deeper: the territorial inequalities that shape opportunities to grow up healthy in Latin America. When countries with similar geographies and challenges achieve very different outcomes, the explanation lies not only in the territory itself, but also in political decisions and in how each state organizes social protection. Imagine seven children born in the same year, one in each of these countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. None of them chose where to be born. None decided the conditions of the health system that would receive them, the quality of the water they would drink or the educational opportunities available to their families. Yet their first thousand days of life began to follow different trajectories. The first thousand days of life determine a significant part of a child's future. During this period, nutrition, primary healthcare, access to safe water, sanitation, maternal education and social protection interact. When any of these elements fails, the consequences can follow a child throughout their life. The difference between these seven children is also reflected in the outcomes their countries have achieved. With five years remaining until...
Washing one’s hands by blaming China
The West blames China for its industrial weaknesses, but it would do better to learn from China’s investment, planning, and long-term policies—lessons far more valuable than trade wars and anti-China rhetoric.