In October Nicaraguan civil rights groups expressed fresh concerns that Chinese mining firms are being allowed to operate in the country by the authoritarian government led by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, without any respect for the environment or the rights of local indigenous communities.

A month-long protest campaign by Ecuador’s umbrella indigenous organisation Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (Conaie) from 22 September-22 October over diesel subsidy cuts caused US$300m in economic damages, resulted in three deaths, and paralysed parts of the country. And yet, it could have been much worse. Previous strikes against attempted fuel subsidy cuts in 2022 cost over US$1.1bn.

The US has lifted sanctions on Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes, raising questions about shifting political alignments in the region. While Washington tightens its stance on Venezuela, the easing of pressure on Cartes, now a key political force in Paraguay, has sparked speculation about quiet diplomacy, strategic tradeoffs and the growing influence of Cartismo under President Santiago Peña.

On 28 October Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica, bringing heavy rainfall, triggering landslides and flash floods, and inflicting widespread infrastructural damage, before moving on towards Cuba.

Recently, the electoral pattern across Latin America and the Caribbean has been for incumbent governments to be thrown out by voters angered by poor economic performance. In Guyana, President Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has bucked the trend: in polls on 1 September, he was re-elected to serve another five-year term.

Newly re-elected President Irfaan Ali will have to move fast on promises to convert his country's sizable oil income into tangible benefits for Guyana's poor, beyond huge prestige infrastructure projects.

The first round of Bolivia’s presidential election on 17 August saw a total collapse for the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), with its candidate Eduardo del Castillo finishing in sixth place with just 3.17% of the vote, narrowly surpassing the 3% cut-off below which a party loses its legal status.

The guilty verdict that was passed upon Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) on 28 July was one of the most anticipated in the country’s recent history, and has been met with drastically differing responses on the left and right.

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to the presidency of Brazil in early 2023, he promised to end the predatory environmental practices promoted by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), particularly in the Amazon rainforest.

On 17 September Argentina’s central bank (BCRA) intervened to prop up the peso, as the lower chamber rejected more of President Javier Milei’s vetoes and anti-government protesters took to the streets, reflecting the mounting challenges facing the Milei administration ahead of October’s mid-term elections.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei heaped praise on his US peer Donald Trump this week for helping to avert an incipient economic crisis. Sustained pressure on Argentina’s currency and economy this month led to the central bank (BCRA) burning through precious international reserves in a vain attempt to prop up the peso.

The outgoing humanitarian coordinator for Haiti at the United Nations (UN), Ulrika Richardson, was reported on 12 August as describing the situation that she was leaving behind in Haiti as “strikingly horrific”.

In his latest attempt to expand his political power, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has succeeded in abolishing presidential term limits in the country.