Organized crime has plagued the Caribbean for decades. Christopher “Dudus” Coke of Jamaica’s “Shower Posse” oversaw a sprawling North American narcotics network during the 1990s and 2000s, which funded concerts and vital charities for the poor on the side, and collapsed after a 2010 police shootout that killed over 73 civilians. In Haiti, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier and his G9 Family and Allies have seized majority-control over the capital city of Port-au-Prince and are now fighting a UN-backed security coalition that includes Jamaican armed forces. These two islands, despite their distinct present circumstances, are linked by a shared history of disastrous Western intervention and subsequent financial devastation.
Read MoreIn Guatemala, the January 2024 inauguration of new president Bernardo Arévalo was tense due to the months-long efforts to prevent it from ever happening. Led not by the military, but by the bureaucracy, the coup d’etat that Guatemala avoided highlights how the nature of undemocratic practices is gradually morphing in Latin America.
Read MoreMore than three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Left-Wing leaders have once again been swept into power across Latin America. In his famous essay "The End of History" (1989) Francis Fukuyama asserted that socialism had become an obsolete ideology in international politics, however, with neoliberalism in crisis and western hegemony on the decline could the second resurgence of the "Pink Tide" prove him wrong?
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