Rochu_2008 / Adobe Stock / Enhanced license
This briefing offers a descriptive perspective regarding remittance transfer growth in 2024. We point out that, this year, flows will experience less than six percent growth. The memo highlights some insight on migration, historic growth, competition in the marketplace, and what growth can be expected for 2024.Read more +
Julio / Adobe Stock / Extended license
Setting aside the debate surrounding the legitimacy and popularity of President Nayib Bukele, he has a number of challenges ahead of him in the social, political, and economic sphere. In large part, these challenges are his legacy as they result from the decisions implemented in his first presidential term. Paradoxically, when it comes to overcoming the country's main problems, President Bukele is his own worst enemy.Read more +
Jorge Mejía Peralta / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 DEED
Democracy is under threat in Central America and authoritarianism is on the rise. This problem is having long-term institutional and economic implications for these countries and poses serious challenges for US policy towards the region. Uncheckered political ambitions and abuses of authority in the form of corruption or political and economic favoritism are signs of severe democratic backsliding. Nicaragua is an illustration of the consequences of unconstrained power. But the growing corruption and political ambitions of other Central American leaders could further affect democratic institutions in the region. It is important not only to bear witness but to mobilize proactive foreign policy to prevent authoritarianism from rising.Read more +
The following note by Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development program at the Inter-American Dialogue, offers some observations pertaining to a migration and remittance outlook in 2024.Read more +
Federico Parra / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
On December 3, President Nicolás Maduro held a referendum asking citizens whether the Essequibo region should be “reclaimed” as part of Venezuelan territory. Whether prompted by the 2015 discovery of abundant oil reserves, or the need to gain popularity before the 2024 presidential elections, Maduro ordered Petróleos de Venezuela, SA…Read more +
Servicio Nacional de Migración de Panamá / Twitter
This piece offers a look at the current migration trends and points to large differences that characterize this situation as a crisis: the scale, composition, nature, and management of migration is outside conventional or historical patterns. Aspects of this unprecedented migration pattern are not within the control of government authorities and policy makers. The recent migration wave to the US border has been referred to as a crisis. Media references point to the drama of people arriving and passing through the Darien, Central America, and Mexico to characterize the problem. Others have pointed out the increasing arrivals into US cities in numbers that are hard to manage by local communities.Read more +
CC-BY-SA-4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Dialogue Non-Resident Senior Fellow Ángel Melguizo and Victor Muñoz distill key findings from a recent report on IoT technology and prospects for broader application in Latin America and the Caribbean.Read more +
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
In June 2019, after two decades of on and off negotiations, the European Union and Mercosur, the South American customs union consisting of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, reached an agreement to dramatically expand economic cooperation between the two blocs. This unprecedented free trade agreement would not only eliminate over…Read more +
