In this post, first published in The Conversation, Enrique Castañón Ballivián, Lecturer in International Development at the UCL Institute of the Americas, discusses the natural resources policies of the newly elected administration of Rodrigo Paz Pereira in Bolivia.

Bolivia’s ‘Capitalism for All’ Project Sparks Backlash for Selling-out on Natural Resources

Enrique Castañón Ballivián

Bolivia’s political landscape has changed dramatically since August 2025, when a general election ended the Movement for Socialism (Mas) party’s rule after nearly two decades. Its presence in Congress has all but vanished, with rightwing parties now commanding an overwhelming majority.

The new president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, campaigned with the rightwing populist slogan: fé, familia y patria (faith, family and homeland). He swept to victory in large part due to the widespread popularity of his running mate and now vice-president, Edmand Lara.

As the son of former Bolivian president Jaime Paz Zamora, who led Bolivia from 1989 to 1993, Paz Pereira represents a new generation of the country’s traditional political elite. But Lara, a former police captain who has become prominent on social media since 2023, comes from the popular classes.

The unlikely pair benefited from a strong desire among the Bolivian people for change amid a severe economic crisis marked by a shortage of US dollars and annual inflation of nearly 20%. They also took advantage of widespread distrust of reticence towards politicians from previous governments. (more…)

In this post, William A. Booth, Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the UCL Institute of the Americas, reflects on Cuba after a recent visit to the island, where he attended a conference marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Tricontinental Conference.

 Cuba’s Past, Present, and Many Possible Futures 

 William A. Booth 

I have just returned from Havana, Cuba where I was taking part in a conference examining the ‘context, impact, legacy and future’ of the Tricontinental Conference on its sixtieth anniversary. This was hosted by the University of Havana and co-organised by the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Research on Cuba, and attended by almost two hundred scholars from all over the world. It was covered by local and regional television stations. 

 It was an interesting and rather tense time to be in Havana – the morning after I arrived, two days of national mourning began for the thirty-two Cuban soldiers killed in Trump’s raid on Venezuela; the day after I left, their bodies were repatriated and Havana saw huge marches marked by sorrow, anger and defiance. The conference served as a timely reminder of the solidarity, co-operation and sacrifice associated with the Tricontinental; we heard excellent papers on education, health, construction and military training. One of the keynotes was given by Comandante Victor Dreke, veteran of anti-colonial struggles in Africa and former comrade of Amílcar Cabral. Now almost ninety years old, his incandescence over ongoing US intervention in Latin America was palpable.  (more…)

In this post, Dr John Lawrence, a former PhD student of the UCL Institute of the Americas, writes about his recently published book, based on his doctoral dissertation, Take-Up, Resistance and Transformation of Corporate Governance Codes, (Palgrave, 2025). 

A Cure for Private Sector Corruption? Corporate Governance Codes in Peru 

 John Lawrence 

Two events occurred in 2014 that affected corporate life in Peru in two very different ways. 

The first, the Odebrecht scandal, came to light in late 2014, when Brazilian authorities uncovered a massive public sector bribery scheme involving $788 million in bribes across 12 countries in Latin America. Odebrecht was the largest construction company in the region and had created a new department to pay bribes to government officials responsible for contracting with infrastructure firms to build new projects. The scandal is often referred to as Lava Jato or “car wash” because investigations into money laundering through car washes led, through Petrobras, the state oil company, to Odebrecht. The story broke in Peru in 2017. It turned out that Odebrecht had chosen Peru as its staging post outside Brazil because of the high level of tolerance to corruption – Peruvians were believed to be generally tolerant of bribery if it meant that they had new roads and bridges! Pointing to this supposed tolerant attitude to corruption, in their defence, Odebrecht claimed merely to have ‘industrialized a widespread cottage industry’.   (more…)