In 2024, Latin America is faced with a lot of political unrest. Various strategies to control the instability occasioned by demands of citizens and institutional difficulties of the governments are being implemented by governments. There is the opposition of extreme security measures and efforts to reform institutions as there have been tremendous regional divisions and demands regarding results on the ground.
Peru and Ecuador are security-oriented and send the military to quench protests and calm the waters as quickly as possible. El Salvador continues to follow the mass arrest policy of President Bukele, which aims at gangs. Domestically, this practice is popular, seeing that it curbs the amount of violence, but internationally, such thinking is treated by human rights organizations as an abuse of human rights and a security-based way of reacting to the discontent.
Meanwhile, Colombia carries on with its policy of Total Peace where it holds negotiations with armed movements despite losing some of them along the way. Chile moves toward its complicated constitutional reform, which implies not only solving social tensions with the help of institutional changes and the conversation in the democratic space, as opposed to by violence. These countries no longer focus on the use of force but structural solutions.
Hybrid ways are evident in Mexico and Brazil. President Lopez Obrador puts social projects along with a strong speech against his adversaries. President Lula has dealt with coalition politics in the process of strengthening the democratic institutions after Bolsonaro. They both go through intense resistance when dealing with disorder.
Venezuela seeks to stave off a tense vote by cracking down harder. Instability is further aggravated by the regime suppressing any form of dissent, disqualification of opposition, and limited concessions. Those international initiatives cannot deal with this authoritarian measure successfully and cannot help in any way to improve the humanitarian crisis worsening unrest.
Conclusion
The 2024 reaction in Latin America is sharply and at all levels: repression is opposed to reform, security to dialogue. Other countries such as Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador impose control, whereas Colombia and Chile seek the negotiated or institutional methods. Mixed strategies are adopted in Mexico and Brazil. Venezuela goes further into repression. The stability of the region is a representation of how governments can deal effectively with the central grievances legitimately, and not be limited to deal with the symptoms. A failed effort ensures that volatility remains high.