The Latin America and Caribbean region has entered an intense electoral period with general elections in Ecuador and Guatemala, upcoming national elections in Argentina, regional elections in Colombia, and a vote on a new constitution in Chile. These elections will take place as countries face a bleak economic outlook: the region is expected to grow 1.9% compared to an average of 4% for all emerging markets, according to the International Monetary Fund. This outlook is further set back by weaker Chinese and European economies, two important trade partners and buyers of the region’s commodities.
What social, economic, and political issues will be center stage in the second half of 2023 for Latin America and the Caribbean? Will the punishment vote against incumbent forces continue, and will we see a change in the political cycle favorable to center-right or right governments? How will economic slowdowns in China and Europe impact the region? Will countries manage to control inflation without further slowing down their economies? The Georgetown Americas Institute welcomed Tamara Taraciuk Broner, director of the Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program at the Inter-American Dialogue; Michael Shifter, adjunct professor in the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University; and Alejandro Werner, director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, to discuss these questions and the changing political and economic landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Featuring
Michael Shifter is an adjunct professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue. Shifter held senior positions at the Dialogue for nearly three decades and served 12 years as president. He currently serves as senior fellow at the organization. Prior to joining the Inter-American Dialogue, Shifter directed the Latin American and Caribbean program at the National Endowment for Democracy and, before that, the Ford Foundation’s governance and human rights program in the Andean region and Southern Cone. In the 1980s, he was a representative in Brazil with the Inter-American Foundation and worked at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin American Program. Shifter graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Oberlin College and holds a M.A. in sociology from Harvard University, where he taught Latin American development and politics for four years.
Tamara Taraciuk Broner is director of the Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program at the Inter-American Dialogue. Before joining the Dialogue, Taraciuk Broner was the acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch. She has carried out extensive field research throughout Latin America documenting human rights violations, and she has conducted cutting-edge research on policies and practices that undermine democracy, including threats to judicial independence, attacks on free speech, discrimination, and harassment of civil society organizations. Taraciuk Broner was born in Venezuela and grew up in Argentina. She studied law at Torcuato Di Tella University. She holds a post-graduate diploma on human rights and transitional justice from the University of Chile and a master’s degree in law (LL.M.) from Columbia Law School.
Alejandro Werner is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from ITAM.
