Latin America in Focus

After a February military operation led to the death of Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera, Mexican authorities searched the cartel leader’s cabin and uncovered logs showing that low-level members of El Mencho’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel earned as little as $140 per week. Many people were surprised by how little the cartel lookouts and hitmen earn, given that their jobs can be, quite literally, deadly. Despite that, the number of people working for these crime groups could fill Estadio Azteca, the stadium where the World Cup kickoff will take place, about two times over.

In this week's episode, Complexity Science Hub’s Dr. Rafael Prieto-Curiel covers why stemming cartel recruitment is crucial for curbing violence in Mexico. The mathematician coauthored a groundbreaking study calculating that, with 175,000 members, cartels represent Mexico’s fifth-largest employer. Moreover, he estimates that they count as the country’s top recruiter, given that they have to repeatedly replenish their ranks following arrests, killings, and disappearances. “They are preventing their own collapse,” he tells AS/COA’s Carin Zissis.

This episode was produced by Khalea Robertson, Luisa Leme, and Camilo Salas. Carin Zissis is the host.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify,YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus and send us feedback at [email protected].

Read Dr. Prieto-Curiel's research in Science.

The music in the podcast is performed by Alejandro Escuer and Leandro Díaz Keller for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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When the United States and Argentina signed a bilateral trade deal in February, one part of the agreement turned heads: Washington would be quadrupling the amount of tariff-free beef it would allow to be imported from the South American country.

Historically, the United States, like countries across the world, limits the amount of beef it imports to help promote its domestic ranching industry.

But now, the United States and Europe are opening their markets, just as China, who became the largest consumer of South American beef in recent years, is imposing quotas on the product for the first time.

Argentine trade expert Francisco Resnicoff joins AS/COA Online’s Chase Harrison to talk all things beef. How will new trade pacts and quotas affect the beef market? And what do shifts in the beef industry mean for domestic politics in countries like Argentina?

This episode was produced by Luisa Leme and Camilo Salas. Carin Zissis is the host. 

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Francisco Resnicoff previously joined the podcast to discuss the 2024 G20. Listen to the episode: https://shorturl.at/TYaTY

Find out more about Trump’s policies in Latin America by subscribing to our weekly newsletter covering Washington’s hemispheric policy: www.as-coa.org/dispatch

The music in the podcast is “Chacarera en el aire," performed by Nicolás Fioravanti for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.  

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

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Haiti has been without an elected leader since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and a spiraling security crisis threatens to derail plans to hold elections this August.  

In this episode, Romain Le Cour-Grandmaison, director of the Haiti and Caribbean Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, covers bumpy governance transitions and “the triangular relationship between the political sector, economic sector, and violent actors” in Haiti, as well as the role U.S. government’s role in addressing the crisis. Bringing on-the-ground observations of Haiti’s turbulent security context, Le Cour traces the complicated—and uncertain—path to the country’s first election in a decade. And as for the long-term future of Haiti’s democracy, he stressed, “We need to address and dismantle the system that makes the gangs attractive to political and economic actors and vice versa. So basically, we need a justice component.”

This episode was produced by Khalea Robertson. Carin Zissis is the host. Latin America in Focus’ executive producer is Luisa Leme.

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Read Romain Le Cour's article on "Ending Haiti's Criminal Governance Crisis" in Americas Quarterly.

The music in the podcast is "Finesse," performed by Rafa Aslan for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.   

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

Follow us on social media:
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Close followers of trade news were waiting for this moment: On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 against President Donald Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to slap tariffs on trade partners around the world. 

Trump first used IEEPA, a measure typically used to apply sanctions, a year ago, when he imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China with the argument that these three countries hadn’t done enough to stop fentanyl flows into the United States. Then he invoked IEEPA again in April 2025, when he slapped tariffs on countries around the world. 

Although SCOTUS' decision reined in Trump's tariffs on one front,he soon enough used another piece of legislation, section 122, to impose new global duties. 

“President Trump has a huge trade arsenal at his disposal, and what we're going to be seeing in the next few weeks is the Trump administration using other measures [that are] more procedural but are less legally exposed,” Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies and USMCA expert, told AS/COA Online’s Carin Zissis.

From IEEPA to legal measures like 122, 232, and 301, understanding trade policy can be like speaking another language. Marroquín untangles them all, explaining what the Court decision means for issues like the upcoming USMCA review and the future of trade policy in the region. 

This episode was produced by Luisa Leme. Carin Zissis is the host. 

 

Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access othr episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].

Diego Marroquín Bitar previously joined the podcast to discuss why corn is a thorny U.S-Mexico trade issue. Listen to the episode: t.ly/yCPW0

Find out more about Trump’s policies in Latin America by subscribing to our weekly newsletter covering Washington’s hemispheric policy, visit: www.as-coa.org/dispatch

The music in the podcast performed by Heloísa Fernandes for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.      

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

Follow us on social media:
X: @ASCOA
Instagram: @ascoa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascoaonline/
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Across Latin America, the political right has been on the march. From El Salvador to Argentina, we’ve seen the pink tide recede as voters back right-wing leaders who are oftentimes allied with the MAGA movement in the United States.
Then there’s Mexico. The largest Spanish-speaking country in the world remains firmly in the hands of Morena, a left-wing party, and its popular president, Claudia Sheinbaum. That doesn’t mean the right-wing leaders haven’t tried to break ground. As we’ll hear, the ultra-Catholic Eduardo Verástegui, who brought CPAC to Mexico, made a failed bid to run as an independent in 2024. And the name of one man has been making the rounds as a potential opposition figure: libertarian business leader and media mogul Ricardo Salinas Pliego.
In this episode, we hear from Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, a historian and sociologist at the University College Cork and George Washington University, and Alex González Ormerod, director of the Mexico Political Economist and author of the book La derecha no existe (pero ahí está) on the state of the Mexican right today. In a conversation with host Carin Zissis, our guests explain why a 100-year-old religious conflict weighs on the Mexican right today, what’s behind the decline of the traditional conservative party—the PAN, and what it would take for the Mexican right to stage a comeback. 
Share and subscribe at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Access other episodes of Latin America in Focus at www.as-coa.org/podcast and send us feedback at [email protected].
Find out more about right-wing movements in Mexico by reading articles by both of our guests and our host in Americas Quarterly.
Alex González Ormerod: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/the-death-and-rebirth-of-the-mexican-right/
Gema Kloppe-Santamaría: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/the-long-shadow-of-mexicos-war-over-catholicism/
Carin Zissis: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/right-wing-populism-hasnt-thrived-in-mexico-why/
The music in the podcast was “Cascabel jarana de arco” performed by Alejandro Loredo for Americas Society. Find out about upcoming concerts at musicoftheamericas.org. Share your love for Latin America: Join Americas Society. Becoming a member gives you preferential access to music performances, art exhibitions, book events, our magazine Americas Quarterly, and more.

Opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of Americas Society/Council of the Americas or its members.

Follow us on social media:
X: @ASCOA
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