Chile has experienced some of the most dramatic effects. On March 26, for example, the price of a common grade of gasoline jumped around 30 percent higher than the previous day, while the cost of diesel rose by 60 percent. President Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast<\/a>, who was inaugurated last month, hasn\u2019t used much policy to control price hikes, mostly passing<\/a> the cost on to Chileans.<\/p>\n The right-wing Kast\u2019s approval rating has already dropped more than 10 percentage points since his inauguration, according to pollster Pulso Ciudadano<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Bolivia, public outcry over the price of gas caused the state energy company to partially walk back<\/a> one of President Rodrigo Paz\u2019s flagship pro-market policies: the removal<\/a> of fuel subsidies. And in Peru, a presidential debate<\/a> on Tuesday featured a discussion of the candidates\u2019 proposals to ensure that gas is affordable.<\/p>\n Though getting rid of fuel subsidies can be politically risky, there is no guarantee that expanding them preserves leaders\u2019 popularity. In Brazil, President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva announced a plan<\/a> for diesel subsidies after the war began. But Lula, who is running for reelection in October, slipped in presidential<\/a> polls<\/a> to around the same level as his top competitor, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n Lula has tried to deflect blame for the price shocks toward U.S. President Donald Trump, saying<\/a> the Iran war \u201cbelongs to Trump.\u201d He might dial up that tactic as the election approaches, especially since Fl\u00e1vio\u2014the son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>\u2014has sought to align himself with Trump. (He appeared last weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas.)<\/p>\n For many countries in the region, the energy shock could demonstrate the value of diversifying away from fossil fuels. Brazil built up a huge domestic ethanol industry after the 1973 oil shock, and it is considering a policy of increasing<\/a> the amount of ethanol in vehicle fuel blends. Even Argentina\u2019s pro-fossil-fuel administration is benefiting from similar capabilities, last week increasing<\/a> the percentage of ethanol that is allowed in car tanks.<\/p>\n In March, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley pledged<\/a> to speed up the country\u2019s shift toward renewable energy, saying it was \u201cfolly\u201d that Barbados did not do so faster after the oil shock that followed Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n Colombia is due to host an international gathering<\/a> on exactly that topic this month. The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, co-organized with the Netherlands, has been in the works since last November\u2019s United Nations climate summit in Brazil. It may gain increased relevance amid the current energy shock.<\/p>\n At least 46 countries have said<\/a> they are sending delegations to the conference, including major oil producers Australia, Canada, and Norway.<\/p>\n Sunday, April 12: Peru holds presidential elections.<\/p>\n Friday, April 24, to Wednesday, April 29: Colombia co-hosts a conference about transitioning away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n Pushback from Beijing. U.S. pressure on Latin American countries to reduce China\u2019s presence in the region has prompted reactions from Beijing. After Panama\u2019s Supreme Court canceled<\/a> the contracts of a Hong Kong company in the Panama Canal, China has increased<\/a> detentions of Panama-flagged ships in its own waters, according to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.<\/p>\n In a separate case, China responded to Mexico\u2019s new tariffs on Chinese goods, alongside imports from other countries that it doesn\u2019t have a trade agreement with, by conducting a trade probe into Mexico. Last week, it concluded<\/a> that Mexico\u2019s actions were a \u201cbreach of trade rules\u201d and said it reserved the right to take unspecified further actions in response.<\/p>\n Colombia\u2019s investment rules. Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced<\/a> last week that he plans to move the country away from investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) arrangements. The ISDS system allows companies to seek financial compensation from countries for certain government actions.<\/p>\n That means, for example, that if Colombia were to ban oil drilling, an oil company that already has contracts to drill might be able to seek compensation. ISDS provisions exist in many trade deals, but countries both in Europe<\/a> and across the developing world<\/a> have retreated from them in recent years, citing the desire for sovereignty.<\/p>\n Petro is due to leave office in August, and his successor might reverse course. For now, however, his pledge is yet another example of how the Petro administration has run counter to much of Colombia\u2019s diplomatic orthodoxy. Long a champion of free trade, the country had complied with the ISDS system in the past.<\/p>\n Relatives of femicide victims protest during a march on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Mexico City.<\/p>\n Relatives of femicide victims protest during a march on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Mexico City on Nov. 25, 2025.Franyeli Garcia\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Fighting femicides. A new Netflix documentary series, The Prosecutor<\/a>, follows the first-ever director of Mexico City\u2019s office devoted to combating femicides, or gender-based killings of women. Mexico City codified the crime of femicide in 2011<\/a>, but alleged cases continued to pile up, uninvestigated and unsolved.<\/p>\n So, in 2019, Mexico City created the new public prosecutor\u2019s office. Lawyer Sayuri Herrera entered the office aiming to push back against widespread impunity in Mexico\u2019s justice system. The filmmakers were granted extensive access to the office, and the series captured details of that world.<\/p>\n The Prosecutor includes a moment when members of the Mexican elite make calls to try to block the prosecution of a wealthy man who gunned down his wife in a restaurant full of witnesses. Rich or poor, perpetrators generally expressed no remorse on the stand. The series shows why fighting gender-based violence is such a steep battle\u2014but also what trying to do so looks like.<\/p>\n Latin America is one of the regions in the world where it is most common to see femicide codified as a crime distinct from homicide. Which country was the first to do so?<\/p>\n Costa Rica<\/p>\n Guatemala<\/p>\n Argentina<\/p>\n Brazil<\/p>\n The year was 2007<\/a>. Guatemala followed soon after, in 2008.<\/p>\n A supporter of Peruvian presidential candidate Rafael L\u00f3pez Aliaga of the Renovaci\u00f3n Popular party, who is known as “Porky,” wears a pig mask outside the Lima Convention Center in Lima.<\/p>\n A supporter of Peruvian presidential candidate Rafael L\u00f3pez Aliaga of the Renovaci\u00f3n Popular party, who is known as \u201cPorky,\u201d wears a pig mask outside the Lima Convention Center in Lima on March 31.Ernesto Benavides\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Ahead of Peru\u2019s presidential election on April 12, candidates with relatively strong polling numbers include Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori; Rafael L\u00f3pez Aliaga, known as \u201cPorky<\/a>,\u201d the right-wing former mayor of Lima; and Alfonso L\u00f3pez Chau, a center-left former central bank director.<\/p>\n Support for L\u00f3pez Chau has grown in recent weeks, according to polls by Datum<\/a> and the Institute of Peruvian Studies<\/a> (IEP). But even so, IEP polling late last month found that a whopping 29 percent of Peruvians were still undecided, and 27 percent more said that they might change their mind before election day. The race is likely to proceed to a runoff.<\/p>\n Surveys suggest that insecurity and the economy are voters\u2019 top concerns. In response to the global energy crisis, all the leading candidates have said they will work to bring energy prices down. Fujimori<\/a> has pledged fuel subsidies, while L\u00f3pez Aliaga<\/a> and L\u00f3pez Chau<\/a> promised relief through rates set by the government. L\u00f3pez Chau also vowed<\/a> a shift to green energy.<\/p>\n The two right-wing candidates have suggested they will implement hard-line security crackdowns, which may give them a boost at a time when insecurity<\/a> is on the rise in Peru. But above all, Peru\u2019s vote seems to be dominated by dissatisfaction with the political class. The country has had<\/a> eight presidents in the last decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to Foreign Policy\u2019s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: Fuel inflation hits Latin America as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1170,2138,13492,102,217,856,8648,5280,6561,101,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-49969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-economics","9":"tag-energy-policy","10":"tag-homepage_regional_americas","11":"tag-hormuz","12":"tag-iran-israel","13":"tag-iran-u-s","14":"tag-paywall-free","15":"tag-renewable-energy","16":"tag-south-america","17":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","18":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116340735527807966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Relatives](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mexico-femicide-protest-GettyImages-2247880551.jpg\")
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