标签： South America

On a busy Wednesday in the Chilean capital of Santiago, a large-scale demonstration against President José Antonio Kast’s sweeping education budget cuts and broader austerity agenda descended into violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and law enforcement. The outpouring of public anger marks the most significant domestic pushback yet against the ultraconservative leader’s fiscal agenda, which he launched immediately after taking office on March 11.

Kest’s administration has made aggressive fiscal consolidation a core policy priority, pledging to slash a total of $6 billion in public spending over an 18-month period to shore up Chile’s national fiscal accounts. To hit this ambitious target, the government has imposed an approximately 3% across-the-board budget reduction on all federal government ministries, with education services facing notable cuts that have mobilized educational communities across the country.

The backlash to the austerity plan has extended far beyond Chile’s traditional opposition parties, with even some moderate factions within Kast’s own governing coalition voicing public criticism of the rapid and deep spending cuts. Wednesday’s demonstration was coordinated by the Confederation of Chilean Students, with formal backing from a broad coalition of allied groups, including the national Chilean Teachers’ Union, secondary school student associations, and multiple national feminist organizations.

What began as an orderly, peaceful march through central Santiago quickly shifted as tensions boiled over, leading to open clashes between protesters and police. To clear the gathered crowds, law enforcement deployed tear gas and high-pressure water cannons, while a subset of demonstrators responded by throwing rocks and other projectiles at officers. The unrest disrupted daily life across the capital, leaving major downtown streets blocked and forcing the temporary closure of multiple downtown subway stations.

Protest leaders accused the administration of intentionally provoking the unrest to create a pretext for a harsh crackdown on dissent. “The government sought to provoke this, to create this situation to justify repression,” Mario Aguilar, head of the Chilean Teachers’ Union, told reporters on the scene.

Beyond opposition to education cuts, demonstrators also gathered to protest Kast’s controversial National Reconstruction bill, a wide-ranging legislative package branded a “mega-reform” by political observers. The bill is designed to cut state spending, attract private sector investment, and stimulate long-term growth for the Chilean economy, but critics argue it will erode public services and reduce protections for working Chileans. The legislation already passed the Chamber of Deputies in late May and is currently scheduled to move to the Senate for its next round of debate.

For young Chilean students who made up a large share of the protest crowd, the cuts represent a direct threat to access to affordable education. “They want to silence us, but we are not going to stop,” said 21-year-old student Magdalena Correa. “They’re taking away our resources and rights, and we have to fight back.”

As of Wednesday evening, neither Chilean national police nor senior Kast administration officials had issued an official statement responding to the clashes or the protest. However, reporters on the ground from the Associated Press confirmed that at least a dozen protesters were arrested during the unrest, and multiple people—both demonstrators and officers—sustained injuries in the clashes.

As Latin America navigates a noticeable political shift toward conservative ideologies, Colombia’s upcoming presidential runoff has become a high-stakes political flashpoint, amplified by a public endorsement from former U.S. President Donald Trump for leading conservative candidate Abelardo de la Espriella. De la Espriella, who secured the top spot in the election’s first round and has earned the nickname “El Tigre” for his combative political style, publicly thanked Trump for his backing this Wednesday.

Trump first made his endorsement official via Truth Social one day prior, throwing his full, unreserved support behind de la Espriella. In his post, he framed the Colombian conservative as a sharp, resilient leader set to face off against what he called a “radical leftist Marxist” — progressive candidate Iván Cepeda — in the June 21 runoff. Trump also added that he anticipates far stronger bilateral relations between the two nations if de la Espriella claims victory, a prediction he later shared on the social platform X.

In his public response posted to X, de la Espriella wrote, “With my head held high and a heart full of patriotic gratitude, I receive your words and your steadfast support. Thank you, Mr. President!”

This endorsement does not mark Trump’s first foray into backing candidates in foreign electoral contests, a pattern that has repeatedly drawn sharp condemnation from critics who argue U.S. political figures should not interfere with the domestic sovereignty of other nations. Last year, Trump threw his support behind Nasry “Tito” Asfura, the National Party presidential candidate in Honduras, who ultimately won the race. He also backed libertarian leader Javier Milei during critical Argentine legislative elections that cleared a path for Milei’s ambitious policy agenda after he won the presidency.

Trump’s involvement in Colombia’s election also lays bare the growing diplomatic friction between Washington and Bogota that has emerged under current Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a progressive. Over Petro’s tenure, bilateral relations have soured dramatically over a string of sharp disagreements: from migration policy and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to long-debated anti-narcotics strategy, most notably the controversial practice of bombing drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. Even though the U.S. remains Colombia’s largest export market, and Bogota was long considered Washington’s most critical ally in the Western Hemisphere, ties have cooled rapidly under the Petro administration.

Petro has publicly pushed back against Trump’s endorsement, rejecting the former U.S. president’s involvement and urging Colombian voters to cast their ballots independently to avoid “becoming anyone’s slaves or colony.” On X, Petro wrote, “When a country intervenes in the decisions of another country, freedom dies.”

Preliminary election results confirm de la Espriella led the first round with 43.74% of the vote, just edging out Cepeda, a sitting senator and close Petro ally, who captured 40.90% of ballots. The conservative candidate, who holds dual Colombian-U.S. citizenship, is an open Trump ally and member of the U.S. Republican Party, with no prior experience holding elected office. He has repeatedly stated his policy positions align closely with longstanding U.S. priorities, especially in the area of counternarcotics. De la Espriella has made a key campaign promise to eradicate thousands of hectares of coca leaf crops — the primary raw material for cocaine — and crack down on drug trafficking networks that ship the drug to the United States.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – In a clear repudiation of unfounded electoral fraud allegations leveled by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the European Union’s independent Electoral Observation Mission has formally ruled out any large-scale tampering in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote, confirming the ballot process was conducted with transparency and organizational efficiency.

President Petro, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, sparked deep political uncertainty in the days after the first round by posting repeated claims on social platform X that hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters were illegally added to national voter rolls ahead of the contest. In his most recent allegation shared Tuesday, Petro claimed 885,000 voters were registered after the legally mandated March 31 cutoff, and that multiple polling stations recorded suspiciously high ballot turnout numbers. He offered no concrete evidence to back up either claim.

The mission’s chief, senior European lawmaker Esteban González Pons, told reporters Tuesday that the independent observation team found no evidence of systemic misconduct to support Petro’s accusations. To verify the integrity of the count, observers pulled a random national sample of official tally sheets and cross-checked them against physical paper ballots, finding zero discrepancies between the two datasets. “We can discard any manipulation of data in the quick count and in the final count,” González Pons confirmed, adding that none of the 12 presidential candidates who competed in Sunday’s first round had formally submitted documented claims of electoral irregularities to the mission.

Colombia’s National Registrars Office, the government body tasked with organizing and administering national elections, also pushed back against the fraud claims Monday. By that evening, the office announced it had completed review of 99.98% of all polling stations across the country, finding only a minimal 0.06% variation from the unofficial quick count published hours after polls closed Sunday – a margin well within acceptable statistical ranges.

The first round results have set up a polarized runoff election scheduled for June 21, pitting conservative lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella against left-wing Sen. Iván Cepeda, the candidate from Petro’s ruling Historical Pact coalition. Official certified results show de la Espriella earned 43.7% of the more than 23 million votes cast, while Cepeda finished just shy of the lead with 40.9%. No candidate earned the 50% plus one majority required to win outright in the first round, triggering the mandatory two-candidate runoff.

Cepeda initially echoed the ruling coalition’s doubts over the result Sunday, refusing to accept the preliminary quick count and saying he would wait for a formal audit overseen by independent judges and notaries to comment. By Monday, however, he softened his stance, acknowledging that party-appointed election monitors had not uncovered “irregularities of a sufficient dimension to speak of fraud.” Cepeda has gone on to confirm he will compete in the June 21 runoff, issued a public debate challenge to de la Espriella, and expressed confidence he will secure victory in the second round.

Under Colombian electoral law, final official election results are verified and certified by an independent panel of judges, not the sitting head of state, with certification typically completed within two weeks of voting. Despite the pushback from independent observers and electoral authorities, political analysts warn that Petro’s repeated unsubstantiated fraud claims carry significant risks: the allegations could deepen already sharp partisan divides across the country and stoke the risk of political violence in the weeks leading up to the high-stakes runoff vote.

On the sun-baked desert stretches of northwestern Peru’s Pacific coast, Gladys Saavedra greets unfamiliar faces at her small Trujillo market stall with quiet wariness. Saavedra is one of dozens of female vendors who, even with meager daily sales, are forced to pool $300 every month to pay off criminal extortionists. Refusal comes with a devastating price: when the group stood their ground against demands last June, their entire market was burned to the ground.

Days after the attack, the women marched through city streets demanding state protection. For Saavedra, however, the lack of meaningful action from authorities came as no surprise. Already in August 2024, her own home had been targeted with explosives in a separate extortion attempt, and police failed to hold anyone accountable. This pervasive climate of gang violence is the defining issue hanging over Peru’s presidential runoff election, scheduled for Sunday, with many voters planning to travel to polling stations gripped by fear of falling victim to attack along the way. “You can’t even stick your head out for fear of being shot,” the 49-year-old vendor said.

The root of Peru’s worsening public safety crisis traces directly to the multi-billion-dollar illegal gold mining industry that has fueled the rapid expansion of organized crime across the country. While extortion first emerged in Trujillo more than two decades ago, official data shows the crime has exploded nationwide over the past five years: reported extortion claims have risen fivefold to hit 28,948 in 2025, while national homicides have doubled to 2,226 over the same period.

Police and security analysts explain that Trujillo-based gangs first built their power base by offering armed protection to illegal gold mining operations in nearby rural areas. The massive profits from this racket allowed them to expand into the city, hiring professional hitmen, acquiring military-grade weapons, and cementing control over urban extortion rings. Official estimates peg annual revenue from illegal mining at roughly $7 billion — nearly six times the $1.2 billion Peru’s criminal networks earn annually from drug trafficking. In 2025, the country exported 100 tons of illegally mined gold, almost matching the 109 tons of legally extracted gold shipped to global markets.

Early targets of extortion were public transportation operators, with drivers executed en masse when they refused to pay up. Last year alone, the independent Observatory of Crime and Violence recorded at least 239 transportation worker killings nationwide, more than half of which were motorcycle taxi drivers — a common form of transit in underdeveloped outer-city neighborhoods with unpaved roads. The murders of bus drivers have sparked widespread citywide transportation strikes and mass protests against government inaction.

Today, no sector of the local economy is spared from criminal extortion. In one Trujillo neighborhood that produces a quarter of Peru’s domestic footwear, union leader Máximo Varas estimates that roughly 1,500 small shoemaking business owners pay regular protection money to operate. “Everyone pays — even I get extorted. No one is safe,” Varas said. Across the city, marked stickers featuring symbols like a puma, a cross, or the Batman logo are plastered on the facades of buses, restaurants, corner stores, nightclubs, and even schools. Law enforcement has confirmed these stickers serve as public signals that a business has paid its required fee, and police regularly conduct removal operations to replace criminal markers with official law enforcement decals.

For 58-year-old local businessman Iván Díaz, the escalation of violence in Trujillo has been nothing short of exponential. In 2023, he was kidnapped from his office by attackers posing as police officers, who held him captive for 11 days. To force his family to pay a $250,000 ransom, the kidnappers cut off portions of two fingers on his right hand and sent torture videos to his relatives to pressure for quick payment. “I had to adapt to reality and keep a cool head,” Díaz recalled. In May, four members of the notorious Los Pulpos gang — a criminal network that formed in Trujillo in the 1990s and later expanded into neighboring Chile — were sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in the kidnapping.

The economic toll of endemic crime on Peru is staggering: the Ministry of Economy estimated in July that criminal activity costs the country roughly $5 billion annually, a sum that includes both public spending on police operations and private costs for businesses and families that invest in surveillance cameras and private security guards. While wealthy municipalities in the capital, such as San Borja where both presidential candidates — conservative Keiko Fujimori and progressive Roberto Sánchez — reside, benefit from heavy uniformed police presence and additional private security patrols, working-class outlying neighborhoods across the country lack basic infrastructure like paved roads, potable water, and electricity — and above all, consistent police presence.

Security experts agree that turning the tide against organized crime requires two major overhauls: a widespread anti-corruption purge of Peru’s 130,000-strong national police force, and a massive injection of funding for criminal investigations. One active organized crime investigator, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media, confirmed that outdated technology leaves police unable to track mobile accounts linked to the digital wallets criminals use to collect extortion payments.

Harvey Colchado, a congressman-elect and retired police officer, explained that budget cuts have gutted investigative capacity: five years ago, each of the country’s 70 police investigative units received a monthly budget of $29,000, but today the units have no allocated funding at all, as the state redirected resources elsewhere. Compounding this underfunding, Colchado said, are recent laws passed with bipartisan support from both Fujimori’s and Sánchez’s political parties that have made it far harder to prosecute and penalize organized crime members. The reforms eliminated preliminary detention for certain offenses and raised the legal threshold for seizing criminal assets and conducting search warrants.

For Saavedra and the thousands of Peruvians living under daily criminal control, this systemic failure has left communities completely unprotected. “This is a cancer,” she said. “(Police) don’t have the resources to trace the calls, to know where the messages are coming from. That’s the only way to stop it.”