January 9 – El Salvador
The United States terminates temporary protected status for about 200,000 Salvadorans, who came to the U.S. after a devastating earthquake in El Salvador in 2001. This special immigration status allowed them to live and work in the U.S. no matter whether they had entered the U.S. legally or not. The government says the conditions caused by the earthquake do not exist anymore and these immigrants have to leave by September 9, 2019 or face deportation. However, El Salvador remains wracked by violence and poverty, and it relies on money send back from relatives in the U.S.[1] These remittances account for about 17.1 percent of El Salvador’s GDP and benefit about a third of the country’s households.[2]
January 22 – Venezuela / Colombia
The European Union imposes sanctions on Venezuela’s seven senior officials accused of human rights violations and corruption. Their assets will be frozen and they will are banned from traveling in Europe. One of them is the country’s second most powerful leader and the head of Venezuela’s ruling socialist party, Diosdado Cabello. The United States has already imposed similar sanctions on dozens of Venezuelan officials, including President Nicolas Maduro. The purpose of these sanctions is to undermine Maduro’s power and display the opposition to his policies. Years of mismanagement and falling oil prices have caused severe economic and political crisis that triggers almost daily anti-government popular protests.[3] (January 19): As economic and political crisis deepens in Venezuela, many Venezuelans flee the country, with most of them to neighboring Colombia. At the end of 2017, there were about 470,000 Venezuelans living in Colombia, most illegally.[4] (24 January): Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly orders new elections that must take place before April. President Maduro says he will run for another term in office. At the same time the country’s opposition is fractured, with many activists either in jail or in exile.[5]
February 13 – Latin America: Venezuela
Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, announces the launch of a cryptocurrency called the petro.[6] This is an attempt to circumvent tough economic sanctions imposed by the US government and to boost the country’s failing economy, where its traditional currency, the bolívar has for years faced devaluation and hyperinflation is at 2,400 percent this year.[7] The economic sanctions have isolated Venezuela from international financing. Each petro is supposed to be backed by one barrel of Venezuelan crude oil. Maduro claims the country will issue about 100 million petro tokens, each token selling for about $60, a figure that is close to the price of a barrel of oil.[8] But he offers few details about how this would work, including any information on exchanges. The critics of this new digital currency point to a few facts: under the law this has yet to be approved by the country’s parliament which is controlled by Maduro’s opposition; the oil behind the petro security had yet to be extracted through joint ventures, in which the government has only a 60 percent stake; and trading in the petro internationally might constitute a violation of the sanctions.[9]
More on the cryptocurrency the petro
IMF Projects Venezuela Inflation Will Soar to 13,000 Percent in 2018
March 10 – Colombia
The results of the Colombian parliamentary elections are fragmented, with no party winning more than 16 percent of the vote. This is the first election in which the former FARC militants participated as a new political party, but they only receive 0.4 percent of the total number of votes. However, they will receive 5 seats in each of the two chambers of parliament as guaranteed by the peace agreement. President Juan Manuel Santos and his government were criticized for leniency towards the peace agreement with FARC, and thus his Social Party of National Unity won only 14 seats in the Senate and 25 seats in the lower house. The Democratic Centre party of former president Alvaro Uribe, which vehemently opposed the terms of the peace deal with FARC, emerged as the largest party, with 19 seats in the country’s Senate, and another 32 in the lower house of representatives.[10]
April 18 – Cuba
Cuba’s parliament nominates Miguel Diaz-Canel, the only candidate, to replace Raul Castro as the country’s president. Diaz-Canel has held the position of vice president of Cuba’s Council of State since 2013, and as Castro’s main adviser, he has been picked and prepared for taking over as president. No drastic change within the Cuban system is expected. 86-year-old Castro will remain the head of the Communist Party, which determines all political life in the country.[11]
May 20 –Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is elected for another six-year term with 67.7 percent of the vote. Maduro’s main rivals, Henri Falcón and Javier Bertucci, declare the poll illegitimate due to alleged widespread irregularities, such as vote buying and electoral fraud. As the opposition boycotted the vote, the turnout was low at 46.1 percent down from 80 percent in the 2013 presidential elections.[12] The opposition accuses the National Electoral Council of inflating its figures and claims the real number is closer to 30 percent.[13]
(May 21): The 14 Latin American countries that form the Lima Group plus Canada issue a statement saying they do not recognize the result of Venezuela’s presidential election and plan to curtail diplomatic relations with the country.[14] The United States places new sanctions on Venezuela that bar U.S. companies or citizens from buying debt or accounts receivable from the Venezuelan government, including Petróleos de Venezuela, the government-owned oil company that is the parent of Citgo Petroleum Corporation.[15]
May 29 – Nicaragua
Weeks of anti-government protest throughout Nicaragua continue despite fatalities. The protests erupted in April when President Daniel Ortega signed a decree to raise taxes and slash pensions. Although by now, he revoked this controversial welfare reform package, the protests continue expressing overall grievances with the government and accusing Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who is also the country’s Vice President, of dictatorial rule, calling for their resignation. President Ortega’s forces are accused of using live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to quell these demonstrations. It is estimated that at least 70 people have been killed. Ortega has been in power since 2007 and during these years he consolidated his and his family’s power in all branches of the government. The protesters accuse him of eroding democratic institutions.[16]
The photos that explain Nicaragua’s crisis
June 1 – Mexico
The United States President Donald Trump imposes trade tariffs on the European Union, Canada, and Mexico, which include a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum sent to the U.S. The Trump Administration cites national security as a reason for the tariffs. The critics and opponents of the tariffs dismiss this argument by saying that these countries are the U.S. main allies with military cooperation. They also warn that the tariffs will raise prices on a wide variety of products for American consumers. The move angers the allied countries that are preparing retaliatory tariffs on a range of U.S. goods.[17]
(June 15): President Donald Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of variety of Chinese goods. Trump says the tariffs are necessary to punish China for its unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft. The critics of the tariffs worry that the tariffs will hurt American businesses, farmers, workers, and consumers and will lead to trade wars. China vows to retaliate.[18]
(June 22): The European Union imposes retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods worth $3.1 billion. These products include bourbon whiskey, motorcycles and orange juice. Also Mexico imposes its tariffs on products ranging from steel to blueberries and bourbon.
(July 1): Canada calls the U.S. tariffs illegal and unjustified and implements retaliatory 25 percent tariffs on U.S. metal products and 10 percent on more than 250 various products, such as beer kegs, whiskey and orange juice.[19]
Basic ideas explained: trade wars, tariffs and protectionism
U.S. top trading partners
July 1 – Mexico
Voters in Mexico elect a new president and new members for the country’s parliament, as well as governors, and, state and local representatives. Former Mexico city mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), running as the candidate of the Juntos Haremos Historia alliance wins the presidential election. With 53 percent of the vote, he defeats three other candidates and wins an outright majority. The incumbent president Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was not constitutionally eligible for a second term. During the campaign, López Obrador pledged to tackle corruption and fight Mexico’s record-high violence, which is mostly related to drug cartels. During the elections campaign 130 political candidates and party workers have been killed. Obrador has been highly critical of U.S. President Donald Trump who attacked Mexico over trade and migration. On social policies, he promised to double pensions for the elderly as a first step to reducing Mexico’s disparate income levels. At the same time, he has promised to respect civil liberties, private business, and fiscal responsibility.[20]
July 2 – Colombia
The United Nations UNESCO organization places Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Park, also called “The Maloca of the Jaguar”, on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.[21] Located in the northwestern part of Colombian Amazon, the park is the country’s largest protected area. One of the defining features of the park are sandstone table-top mountains featuring over 75,000 paintings on the walls of the 60 rock shelters that go back more than 20,000 years. The paintings depict hunting scenes, battles, dances and ceremonies. The place is a sacred region for indigenous people.[22]
August 4 – Venezuela
Two drones carrying explosives detonate in Venezuelan capital of Caracas, near the podium where the country’s President Nicolas Maduro is addressing a crowd during a military parade. Seven soldiers are injured. The Venezuelan government calls it an assassination attempt on Maduro and without evidence blaming Colombia and the Venezuelan opposition. Government critics, however, point out that this was a staged operation in order to justify a crackdown on the opposition in Venezuela. Some of the opposition leaders are quickly arrested.[23]
Severe economic crisis, rampant inflation, and shortages of even basic goods and medicines in Venezuela are causing an exodus of its people to neighboring countries. It is estimated that since 2014, more than 2.3 million Venezuelans—7 percent of the total population— have fled the country. Over a million people have migrated to Colombia. From there, thousands crossed into Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil.[24]
Video (1:48 min): Venezuela crisis: Why has 7% of the population fled the country?
How Venezuela’s crisis developed and drove out millions of people
September 3 – Argentina
The Argentinian government announces it has accepted a $50 billion-loan from the International Monetary Fund and plans to implement austerity measures in an effort to tackle its currency crisis. The Argentine peso has lost about half its value this year against the US dollar, despite the central bank raising interest rates to 60 percent. Beginning January 1, Argentina will impose taxes on its primary exports, such as soy meal and soy oil, corn, wheat and raw soybeans. Also, more than half of ministry jobs will be eliminated. Mauricio Macri’s government says its goal is to balance the country’s budget by next year and to produce a 1 percent surplus in its budget by 2020. Argentina has been plagued by economic problems for years.[25]
Argentina’s economic crisis explained in five charts
September 19 – Colombia
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that in 2017 cocaine production in Colombia reached an all-time high. The area under coca cultivation expanded to 171,000 hectares, an increase of 17 percent compared to 2016. Eighty percent of coca is grown in the same areas as it has been for the past 10 years. The report says the potential production of cocaine has a value of $2.7billion in the local market. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, with lots of it ending up in the U.S.[26]
More on Colombia’s cocaine production from Business Insider
October 12 – Honduras / El Salvador / Guatemala
Several thousand people set off from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala on foot towards the United States border in what has been referred to as the migrant caravan. The migrants that include lots of women and children are fleeing violence, forced gang recruitment, poverty, and the lack of economic opportunities in the hope of a better life. U.S. President Donald Trump calls the caravan a “national emergency” (although it is still thousands of miles away from the U.S. border) and vows to send thousands of troops to stop the migrants from crossing the US border.[27] According to the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), the region has one of the highest murder rates in the world. In 2015, murder rates in Honduras stood at 57.45 deaths per 100,000 and El Salvador at 105.44 deaths. In comparison, murder rates in the United States in 2015 were at 4.96 deaths.[28]
October 28 – Brazil
Brazil’s former military officer and the head of the far-right Social Liberal Party Jair Bolsonaro wins the run-off in the presidential election with Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party, gathering 55.2 percent of the vote. The election result represents the country’s desire for a change after years of corruption scandals in the highest levels of Brazil’s government and businesses. Bolsonaro has pledged to fight corruption, as well as reducing state intervention in the economy. His critics, however, worry that his approval of dictatorship might undermine Brazil’s democracy.[29]
Read more about Brazil’s Corruption Fallout