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Georgetown Americas Institute

May 26, 2026

The State of Democracy in Latin America

Event Series: Challenges to Democracy: The Latin American Landscape

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Democracy in Latin America, as in the rest of the world, is facing major challenges in political governance, electoral integrity, institutional strength, economic growth, and social cohesion. While it is true that these challenges manifest with varying intensity and emphasis in each country of the region, there are common elements and similarities that highlight the importance of addressing specific cases from a global, comparative perspective. We have moved from a celebration of democracy at the beginning of the twenty-first century—a time when all Latin American countries were living within a framework of constitutional democracy—to concern about practically every country in the region.

In this context and as a lead up to the third annual conference on the state of democracy in the Americas, jointly organized by the Georgetown Americas Institute and FORMA, a virtual series of discussions titled “Challenges to Democracy: The Latin American Landscape” will be held from May to September 2026, coordinated by Professor Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, a resident fellow at the GAI. In each of the biweekly sessions, Professor Córdova will speak with experts from a dozen Latin American countries to analyze the state of democracy and the specific challenges each faces.

The first event in this series will offer an overview of democracy in Latin America and Caribbean led by renowned Argentine political scientist Daniel Zovatto, with subsequent sessions addressing each country’s situation. 

This session will be held in Spanish with English interpretation.

Featuring

Daniel Zovatto is the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Zovatto was a member of the Advisory Council of the Latin America Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He also served on the editorial board of Foreign Affairs magazine in Spanish and is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Governance Index for Africa from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. In Argentina, he is a corresponding academic at the National Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Córdoba and the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of Buenos Aires, Argentina; he is a consultant member of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI) and advisor to the Argentine Political Action Network (RAP) and the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth in Argentina (CIPPEC). In Córdoba, he chaired the Commission of Electoral Experts that introduced the single suffrage ballot in the province. In Chile, in 2015, he served as an advisor, at the invitation of then-president Michelle Bachelet, of the Presidential Advisory Council against conflicts of interest, influence peddling, and corruption. He is an international lecturer and analyst. He is an analyst and columnist for the CNN en Español network and a frequent contributor to various Latin American newspapers and El País (Spain), as well as radio and television programs from numerous countries in the region.

Lorenzo Córdova is a Mexican constitutional scholar and public intellectual specializing in electoral law, constitutional theory, and democratic governance. He earned his law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and holds a Ph.D. in political theory from the University of Turin, Italy. He is a full-time Researcher “B” at UNAM’s Legal Research Institute and is recognized by Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI) as a Level III National Researcher, the highest distinction awarded by the program. Córdova is also a professor of constitutional theory and constitutional law at the UNAM Law School. His public service career includes serving as electoral councilor of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) from December 2011 to April 2014, followed by his tenure as councilor president of the National Electoral Institute (INE) from April 2014 to April 2023. A prolific author, Córdova has written, co-written, or coordinated more than a dozen books on constitutionalism, democracy, and political theory. His most recent work is La democracia constitucional en riesgo. Los autoritarios no descansan (2024). He is currently a weekly video columnist for Latinus, a columnist for El Universal, and a frequent contributor to specialized journals and broadcast media.