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Colombia at the Crossroads

The victory of Gustavo Petro is a historic breakthrough in a country where independent popular forces have been systematically excluded from formal political representation for two centuries. What lies ahead?

Remaking Medellín

Transformed from murder capital to corporate boom town, Medellín has been hailed as a rare urban success story for neo-conservatism in South America. The singular progression of Escobar and Uribe’s hometown—cattle-trading post, industrial centre, drug-trafficking hub, neoliberal Latin Mecca.

The Landslide in Bolivia

The Left owes its December victory in Bolivia to the popular movements that have stymied water and gas privatizations since 2000. Forrest Hylton surveys the landscape ahead, and the militant formation of Morales’s running mate Álvaro García Linera.

The Chequered Rainbow

As tensions mount on the eve of national elections in Bolivia, a study of the longest insurrectionary cycle of any Latin American country, stretching from the late eighteenth century to the present day. The explosive fusion of ethnic and class aspirations in the newest round of risings, overthrowing two presidents in as many years.

Colombia: An Evil Hour

The longue durée of Uribe’s Colombia, from its origins in the mid-19th century, through the Violencia of the postwar years, to the coming of today’s guerrillas, narco-traffickers and paramilitaries. Conditions and prospects of the latest campaign to wipe out armed insurgency against Latin America’s oldest ruling order.