Judicial reforms look to erode—not consolidate—democracy; Peruvian guns fuel Ecuador’s violence; and Arévalo delivers a technocratic, centrist cabinet

Guatemala’s protest movement goes national; Latin America’s meddlesome ex-presidents; U.S. border crisis and geopolitical turmoil are taking the pressure off Maduro.

Petro’s Total Peace strategy faces its greatest obstacle yet; USMCA brings judgments, even as countries delay enforcement

But President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is wasting the opportunity.

Late last year, the Ghana Police Service issued a statement in which it warned those it referred to as “doomsday prophets” to desist from prophesying or face prosecution and a term of imprisonment of up to five years. It reminded the Ghanaian public that “it is a crime for a person to publish or reproduce a statement, rumor or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace, where that person has no evidence to prove that the statement, rumor or report is true.”

Mexico will define the success of the U.S. State Department’s new synthetic drug initiative; In the Dominican Republic, politics trumps economics; Brazilian military mostly supported democracy.

Beyond his bluster on migration and trade, Donald Trump actually asked little of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. That will change under Joe Biden.