The Americas Quarterly Podcast

Arguably no country has been more exposed to Donald Trump's second term than Mexico. The country sends more than 80% of its exports to its neighboring nation and receives more than $60 billion a year in remittances from citizens living in the U.S. President Claudia Sheinbaum has navigated the relationship with notable pragmatism, but tensions are rising again over U.S. demands for greater security cooperation, extradition requests for Morena politicians, and uncertainty over the future of the USMCA. Should Mexico take a more confrontational approach, as Canada has? Or is it destined to accommodate Washington? Our guest, Vanessa Rubio-Márquez, author of AQ's latest cover story, argues for a middle path: Mexico can hold firm on its red lines with Washington while taking steps to put its own house in order. Rubio-Márquez is a former Mexican senator and deputy minister, a professor of practice at the London School of Economics School of Public Policy, and a senior advisor at McLarty Associates.

Latin America is having its best economic outlook since the commodities boom of the 2000s. Record commodity prices, a weak U.S. dollar, a privileged position in the global trade war—selling to both the U.S. and China— and a wave of business-friendly governments are creating conditions the region hasn't seen in decades. But Latin America has defied rosy predictions before, and the outlook remains uncertain in its three largest economies: Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. 
Today on the podcast, we ask what a new takeoff would mean in practical terms for growth, the markets, and its citizens; take stock of the region's most relevant economies; and examine what could prevent this favorable moment from becoming a lasting reality.
Our guest is Ernesto Revilla, Chief Economist for Latin America at Citi and a member of AQ's editorial board.

Only a few weeks ago, there was a near consensus in Brazil that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the favorite to win this October’s election over his main challenger, conservative Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
Today, most polls show the race is tied, and Flávio Bolsonaro seems to have the momentum. With the first round of voting on October 4 and a second round very likely on October 25, it’s been a unique—and to outsiders, somewhat confusing—campaign in Brazil. 
In recent months, the main issue has been not the economy, or security, as we’ve seen in other recent Latin American elections, but a corruption scandal involving Daniel Vorcaro, a disgraced banker whose network of influence and business ties extended to much of Brazil’s political and economic establishment. Back in May, Bolsonaro was badly damaged by alleged ties to Vorcaro. But more recently, attention has shifted to Vorcaro's alleged ties to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Those revelations, in turn, seem to have damaged Lula.
This week on the podcast, we look at the latest on the Vorcaro scandal and other key factors in this race, including the health of Brazil's economy and whether President Trump will try to intervene on behalf of the Bolsonaro family, with Thomas Traumann, a longtime political analyst and commentator, who is also a member of AQ’s editorial board.

We’re all used to hearing pessimistic headlines about the state of democracy in Latin America and beyond. But the latest edition of the AmericasBarometer survey suggests the mood may be shifting. 
Support for democracy across the Americas rose between 2023 and 2026, the first broad upturn in the region’s commitment to democracy in a generation. The survey, from Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, includes more than 25,000 interviews across 21 countries, from Argentina to the United States and Canada. It also offers a rare look inside Cuba, fresh data on how the region views China and the U.S. under President Trump, and a surprising decline in how many people say they want to emigrate. 
This week on the podcast, we break down the findings with Noam Lupu, Director of the Center for Global Democracy at Vanderbilt University.

On August 7th, Abelardo de la Espriella was inaugurated as Colombia's new president after winning an incredibly tight election. Three days later, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the western part of the country, leaving damages close to $10 billion and devastating hundreds of municipalities across 15 departments. It was an extraordinary early test for a president still in his first week in office. De la Espriella came to power promising Milei-style fiscal cuts, a hardline security plan, and a sharp break from Gustavo Petro's four years in office: including restarting oil exploration, ending the total peace process, and launching joint military operations with the United States. Instead, his first major act was declaring a state of national emergency. 
Today on the podcast, we explore what his agenda looks like now on security, the economy, and the fiscal situation and ask how much he will still be able to get done. Our guest is Mauricio Cárdenas, former presidential candidate and minister of finance and Senior Scholar at Columbia University. 
Note: This episode incorrectly states that over 23 million people voted in the second round election in Colombia. The correct number is over 26 million votes.