Rosa María Payá, founder of nonprofit Cuba Decide and daughter of assassinated Cuban political dissident Oswaldo Payá, took the floor on the last day of the examination of Cuba by the UN Human Rights Council. Her petition was simple: expel Cuba from the council. A Cuban official responded by attacking her character, but he said nothing in response to her summary of the regime's activities. The Impunity Observer reached out to Payá to learn firsthand what motivated her speech. In addition to broa...
Apr 09, 2024•26 min
Fernando Linares—a Guatemalan lawyer and former congressman—has initiated the legal process to remove the president and 24 congressmen. All belong to President Bernardo Arévalo’s suspended Semilla party. According to Linares, this party has committed numerous illegalities, such as falsely registering more than 8,000 members to qualify for the ballot. He explains that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal should annul the 2023 elections and hold fresh elections in 2024. For Linares, the 2023 Guatemalan ...
Mar 01, 2024•24 min
Luis Espinosa Goded—a Spanish professor of economics at San Francisco University of Quito, Ecuador—explains how citizens and private businesses will pay a high price for the government's conflict with narcoterrorists. Curfew impositions, reduced mobility, and narco extortion are already some ways in which individuals—rather than the state or the narcos—are suffering from the escalating conflict that has inflamed the nation. For Espinosa Goded, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s strategy of a hi...
Feb 28, 2024•33 min
Mario Duarte—co-founder and CEO of DH Global Strategy, a global consulting and lobbying firm—predicts 2024 will be a hectic year worldwide for geopolitics. He believes the Democratic Party is promoting the US border crisis: "the Western Hemisphere appears to be being weaponized to influence the US November elections in the United States." For Duarte, many illegal migrants cross the US border to get new economic opportunities, but others work together with narcos and terrorists. He adds that deve...
Jan 24, 2024•22 min
Martín Litwak—an Argentine tax and wealth structuring expert—explains that the next three months are key to the Javier Milei administration for implementation of liberal reforms. Milei is enjoying a honeymoon period, and Argentines are on their summer vacations. Although Litwak expressed his excitement regarding a liberal government to be in power in Argentina and deregulate the economy, he is concerned the Milei administration has not led with tax cuts. Litwak contends that although Argentina h...
Jan 15, 2024•37 min
Mauro Echeverría—deputy editor of the Impunity Observer—and Sebastián Díaz—policy analyst with the Impunity Observer—explain the internal armed conflict in Ecuador. For them, the violence has been increasing since 2020. Díaz adds that gangs declared war on Ecuador after Adolfo “Fito” Macías, leader of the Los Choneros gang, escaped from prison on January 7. Since then, gangs have occupied many streets, firing on anyone in their way, and taken control of a TV network and a university. Díaz conten...
Jan 11, 2024•34 min
José Luis González Dubón—a Guatemalan lawyer, university professor, and independent journalist—explains the irregularities associated with President-Elect Bernardo Arévalo’s Semilla party. These include more than 8,000 forged signatures used to register the party. He contends that international community members such as the Organization of American States were accomplices to electoral fraud and favored their preferred candidate: Arévalo. For González, Arévalo should not take office in January 20...
Dec 14, 2023•35 min
Carlos Torrebiarte—a director with the Association for the Defense of Private Property and a Nuestro Diario weekly columnist—explains how the US Embassy in Guatemala revoked his and his wife’s US travel visa. He contends that the embassy did this to spite him for speaking up against “the policies that the United States wants to impose in Guatemala.” For Torrebiarte, the Prosecutor General’s Office must continue its investigation of the Semilla party's fraudulent registration. He explains that if...
Dec 04, 2023•34 min
Adam Dubove, cofounder and director of financial-intelligence service Ichimoku Fibonacci, and Eduardo Marty, founder and president of the Foundation for Intellectual Responsibility in Argentina, contend that Argentine President-Elect Javier Milei has a historic opportunity to succeed in his incoming administration. Milei, however, needs to work his way through Congress—where his party does not have a majority. Further, he needs to find a competent team to execute his market-liberalization plan. ...
Nov 21, 2023•34 min
Maribel Espinoza—a Honduran congresswoman of the Salvador Party—contends that Xiomara Castro’s socialist Libre Party is on a mission to control every branch of the state. She explains that Libre congressmen have violated the Honduran Constitution and the Public Ministry Law with their appointment of a new attorney general. The decision has been in stalemate since August, so the past appointee, Daniel Sibrián, has remained in his position past his planned departure. Article 205 of the Constitutio...
Nov 06, 2023•28 min
Adam Dubove—cofounder and director of financial consulting firm Ichimoku Fibonacci—explains that Javier Milei can still beat Peronista Sergio Massa in the runoff. However, he predicts the results will be tight. Further, he contends that the incumbent Peronista government made an elaborate effort to undermine Milei’s candidacy through negative propaganda against the paleolibertarian through media allies and state-owned companies such as Argentine Railways. For Dubove, the Together for Change coal...
Oct 24, 2023•34 min
Sebastián Díaz—an Impunity Observer policy analyst—and Mauro Echeverría—Impunity Observer deputy editor—explain how Ecuadorian President-Elect Daniel Noboa won the election against Correísmo. Further, they analyze the main challenges that Noboa will face in his term, which will last one year and a half, given that Guillermo Lasso dissolved Congress six months ago. For Díaz and Echeverría, Noboa’s capacity to address the chief concerns of Ecuadorians—the insecurity crisis and lack of economic opp...
Oct 17, 2023•30 min
Jair Viana—economist and research director at the Colombian Libertank policy institute—explains the importance of a free-market economy for development. He contends that the freest cities in Colombia, such as Montería, have been economically growing at a rapid clip relative to larger cities. Viana also explains how Bogotá, despite having the highest taxes and the least economic freedom in the country, has the largest number of private businesses. That number of companies, he says, would grow exp...
Oct 10, 2023•33 min
Arturo Damm Arnal—economics and philosophy professor at Panamerican University in Mexico—explains how a coalition of three traditional parties will challenge Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party. The National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) have named Xóchitl Gálvez, an indigenous woman, as their presidential candidate for the June 2024 election. Damm Arnal contends the main difference between Gálvez and Morena cand...
Sep 25, 2023•32 min
Join our Deputy Editor Mauro Echeverría, who will discuss his latest insights regarding Ecuador's insecurity crisis. Recommended links: https://impunityobserver.com/2023/06/01/why-ecuador-law-enforcement-is-no-match-for-narcos/ https://impunityobserver.com/2022/10/31/the-origins-of-escalating-violence-in-ecuador/
Aug 14, 2023•30 min
Alisa Gray—interim training and assessment specialist at the Voting System Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP)—and Chad Kinsella—co-director of VSTOP—visited Guatemala as foreign electoral observers. They explain the role of foreign observers in the Guatemalan general elections on June 25. Further, Gray and Kinsella describe the main procedural differences between elections in Guatemala and Indiana, United States. These differences include the use of paper ballots and manual vote counting in Gua...
Jul 25, 2023•48 min
Chiara Barchiesi—Chilean congresswoman and founder of the Republican Party—explains that citizens rejected the previous constitutional draft because it ignored the country’s reality and key principles such as the rule of law. She contends that the Republican Party—which has 22 of 51 advisers that will write the new constitutional draft—will work for the people and their problems. Barchiesi, who was elected when she was 24 years old, says the Republican Party is open to negotiations with leftist ...
Jul 13, 2023•29 min
Read the analysis in English: https://impunityobserver.com/2023/06/24/why-indianas-latino-secretary-of-state-backs-voter-id/ Lee el análisis en español: https://impunityobserver.com/2023/06/24/por-que-el-secretario-de-estado-latino-de-indiana-respalda-la-identificacion-del-votante/
Jun 24, 2023•14 min
For Agustín Etchebarne—director at the Freedom and Progress Foundation—Argentines have the opportunity to change the country’s course in the October 2023 presidential election. He explains how Javier Milei's rise, as a classical-liberal economist and presidential candidate, will take votes from both the Peronistas and the Mauricio Macri-led opposition. Either way, there will most likely be a runoff between the final two candidates. Etchebarne asserts that the next president, if he manages to red...
Jun 12, 2023•31 min
For Emmanuel Rincón—senior editor at Americano Media—María Corina Machado is the best option to face Nicolás Maduro in next year’s presidential election. Machado is leading in the polls for the 2023 opposition primary election in Venezuela, and Rincón contends that most opposition members are controlled opposition: socialists who promote leftist policies. An electoral victory by this “fake” opposition would only offer new faces, while the failed socialist structure would remain in place. Regardi...
May 15, 2023•35 min
For Daniel Runde—director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)—the Chinese regime has met infrastructure and economic demands that US aid to Latin America has overlooked. He warns that China seeks global dominance in economic spheres, with negative implications for Western values. Runde, author of The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power (2023), contends that China’s ballooning presence in Latin ...
Apr 11, 2023•21 min
Rafael Curruchiche—Guatemalan special prosecutor against impunity since August 2021—shares how the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (FECI) has been used in previous years to persecute political opponents. For example, former FECI chief Juan Francisco Sandoval—praised on multiple occasions by the US State Department—has four active arrest warrants for abuse of authority, breach of duty, and obstruction of judicial processes. Curruchiche contends his own inclusion on the Engel List of ...
Mar 15, 2023•36 min
Mauricio Alarcón-Salvador—the executive director of the Foundation for Citizenship and Development (FCD)—explains why Ecuadorians rejected President Guillermo Lasso’s referendum in the February 5 elections. It included proposals to allow the extradition of Ecuadorian drug traffickers and to reduce congressmen from 137 to 121. He also contends that Correísmo has become the largest political force in the country after the elections. Due to nationwide discontent, Alarcón-Salvador fears Lasso might ...
Feb 09, 2023•27 min
Ricardo Escudero—editor of Minuto Digital Peru and founder of the Savings Institute—explains how former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s tenure came to an abrupt end in December 2022, after several corruption investigations against him and his family. Escudero contends that Castillo, in desperation, tried to implement a communist dictatorship in Peru but failed. Escudero believes Dina Boluarte’s presidency remains tenuous. He highlights, however, that Boluarte is removing all the far-left off...
Jan 12, 2023•30 min
Joanna Guerra—a lawyer, philosopher, and director of Ladies of Liberty Alliance and Fundación Federalismo y Libertad in Mexico—discusses the electoral reform Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) proposed to Congress. For Guerra, the proposed reform was a threat to democracy and a step backward in the country’s efforts to maintain political alternation. Guerra also analyzes how the AMLO administration will act after Congress rejected the proposal on December 6. AMLO’s plan B inclu...
Dec 15, 2022•27 min
Mauro Echeverría, deputy editor and researcher at the Impunity Observer, visited Cuba in October to report on the island’s political and economic situation. Interviewees told Echeverría that citizens struggle with dire shortages of food, gasoline, and medicine. Similarly, electricity blackouts throughout the day are now a standard feature of life. Cubans no longer trust the regime, which is evident with daily protests across the island. For Echeverría, internet access has strongly influenced the...
Nov 16, 2022•25 min
Maria Zuppello—an Italian journalist and political analyst living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for over a decade—discusses why Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro outperformed the polls. His main contender, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, won the election with 48 percent of the votes, with Bolsonaro only 5 percent behind. Zuppello argues that, despite Lula still being the favorite to win the presidency, the scenario is uncertain. She believes Lula failed to present a coherent plan to Brazili...
Oct 17, 2022•30 min
Join our Editor at Large Steve Hecht, who will discuss his latest insights regarding the United States and Latin America.
Oct 04, 2022•29 min
Alejandra Moreno—data analyst, chemical engineer, and chapter leader of Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) in Medellin—analyzes Gustavo Petro’s plans of reform, including an energy transition in Colombia. She explains, however, that an energy transition is not urgent, because Colombia is a leading producer of clean energy in the region. Moreno also discusses the tax reform that Petro and the Historical Pact—his political party—have proposed. She explains how the negotiations between the FARC guer...
Sep 30, 2022•29 min
On August 22, Ocean Builders launched their ecofriendly land and sea pods (houses) in Linton Bay Marina, Panama. With 3D-printed architecture and high-tech infrastructure, Ocean Builders is manufacturing an innovative and self-sustainable lifestyle. In this episode, Grant Romundt—CEO at Ocean Builders—explains why they chose Panama as the destination to start the groundbreaking business. Romundt, who has lived in sea pods for over five years, shares his experience living closer to nature in a cu...
Sep 07, 2022•23 min
