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Social Science and Public Policy

Challenges to Citizenship – Authoritarianism in Latin America

April 12, 2024 at 2:00pm – 3:30pm

Virtual (See event details)

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As recently as the early 2000s, Latin America was one of the most democratic regions in the world, after a period in which one country after another adopted or strengthened democratic institutions such as free and fair elections, a free press, respect for civil liberties, and more. Yet the fate and stability of democracy in the region have been widely divergent—heroic and successful efforts to protect democratic institutions emerged in Brazil and Guatemala; democracy has been completely undermined in Venezuela and Nicaragua; and new forms of democratic erosion or malaise have emerged several other countries in the region.

Our panelists will engage with a wide range of questions about the challenges of curbing authoritarian tendencies, protecting democracy, and expanding political and social rights more broadly, across a wide range of Central and South American cases. 

Will Freeman
Fellow for Latin America Studies 
Council on Foreign Relations

Will Freeman is a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Prior to joining CFR, Freeman was a Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Colombia, Peru, and Guatemala. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in politics from Princeton University and a B.A. in political science from Tufts University. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Economist, the Journal of Democracy, the Washington Post, and Americas Quarterly.

Carmen Martínez Novo
Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville

Carmen Martinez Novo is professor of Latin American studies and anthropology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She is the editor in chief of the Latin American Research Review. Martinez is the author of “Undoing Multiculturalism: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador” (Pittsburg, 2021), “Repensando los movimientos indígenas” (FLACSO, 2009) and “Who Defines Indigenous?” (Rutgers, 2005), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on indigenous and inter-ethnic politics in Mexico and Ecuador. 
Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez

Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science, Harvard 

Manuel is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Harvard University, where he is affiliated with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. In 2023-23, he was a USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. He studies contemporary challenges to democracy, with a focus on Latin America. 

This event was published on March 25, 2024.

Event Details