Each day, 21votes gathers election and political news from a different region of the world. We explore the Americas on Saturdays. Click the map pins.

Upcoming Elections
Guyana Snap Parliamentary – March 2019
The Guyana Chronicle, a government newspaper, reports that the government will be challenging the unprecedented no-confidence motion that Parliament passed earlier this month. The success of the motion triggered snap elections set for March. Three years ago, ExxonMobil discovered crude off Guyana’s coast, and the expected economic transformation from becoming an oil-producing state has exacerbated political divisions in the country.

Related to oil, a long-standing border dispute with neighboring Venezuela has flared up. Last week, ExxonMobil paused exploration work after the Venezuelan navy confronted their ship. Reuters reports: “Critics of Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro say he has rekindled tensions with its eastern neighbor over the Essequibo region, a sparsely populated area making up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory that is also claimed by Venezuela, to distract from a severe economic crisis in the OPEC-member nation.” Even though Venezuela has the world’s largest crude reserves, Venezuelans do not have basic food and medicine due to an extremely corrupt and incompetent government.

Argentina General – October 27, 2019
Financial Times analyzes the challenges Brazil’s new populist president is creating for traditional conservatives in the region, including Argentina’s center-right president, Mauricio Macri, who faces a tough reelection campaign this fall.

Recent Elections
Brazil – October 2018
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s populist president-elect, is to be inaugurated on New Years Day. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend, as well as fellow populists Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Sebastian Pinera, Chile’s center-right president. Notably, President Mauricio Macri of Brazil’s neighbor Argentina will not attend. The Guardian notes: “Bolsonaro is the latest populist leader – from the right or left – to be elected, following Donald Trump, the increasingly autocratic leftist Morales, and arch-nationalist Orbán.” The inauguration will feature heavy security, partly because Bolsonaro was stabbed with a knife in September.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a break from his campaign to fly to Brazil for the inauguration. The Jerusalem Post reports: “This will be the first-ever visit of a sitting Israeli prime minister to Brazil, the world’s fifth most populous country and the world’s eighth largest economy.”

Venezuela – May 2018
BBC reports: “The new year is widely expected to heap pressure on the Venezuelan government. On 10 January, Nicolás Maduro will be formally sworn in for another six years after being declared the winner in elections last May. These elections were largely boycotted by the opposition and were widely condemned by the US, the EU and most of Venezuela’s neighbors.”

The Miami Herald has a great piece on Venezuela’s comedians, who mock Maduro mercilessly but may not dare to do so for much longer. Comedy plays an important role in countering authoritarianism – laughing removes fear, allowing citizens to stand up and make changes.

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