From The Yucatan Times

Protests have erupted. They are repeated from Mexico to Chile, passing through Haiti; although the demands are diverse, there is a common factor: citizen awakening.

AN JOSÉ Costa Rica (Agencies/EFE) – Forged in a bonfire of deep socioeconomic difficulties, political violence shakes Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago.

The count of the constant anti-government riots due to socio-political upheavals in Latin America and the Caribbean showed that in the last 22 months alone, at least 19 of the 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations – all Spanish, French and Portuguese speaking – have suffered violence or repression, something that persisted in communist Cuba yet, it did not show its bloody conflicts on the streets.

In Bolivia, Honduras, Venezuela, Haiti, Peru or Nicaragua protests have erupted over a large menu of social and political crysis and popular unrest, ranging from demands for democracy, freedom, respect for suffrage and the fight against corruption. In others such as El Salvador due to environmental defense; in Mexico due to accusations of murders and disappearances, the request for money from the nation´s mayors and manifestations of teachers’ unions with absurd and abusive petitions. Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago due to insecurity, in Panama due to electoral issues and Guatemala due to social violence.

The claims were taken to the streets and the clashes began. in Brazil, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, people rejected the rise in transport and fuel rates, tax and labor adjustments. Also, Uruguay has shown its rejection to G-20, a bloc of industrialized and emerging countries, and in Argentina the reform to pensions and the cut of the national budget.

Faced with the shock, beyond their ideological position of left, right or center, many of the governments have responded with a repressive deployment of military, paramilitary, police forces, which led to the condemnation of international organizations and the defense of human rights.

Preceded by the black October 2019 in Ecuador and Chile, with thousands of citizens violently thrown into the streets, the most recent eruption took place last Monday in Bolivia, due to the rejection of the announcement that the president of the nation, Evo Morales, was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in the first round of the elections held the previous Sunday and the denunciation that there was electoral fraud.

“In several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean there is an awakening of citizen participation” said Guatemalan Nery Rodenas, director of the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala. “It is positive. The negative is the repression of some apparently democratic governments against the social protests” she explained, to EL UNIVERSAL.

For more on this story go to; https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2019/10/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-under-fire/