Do you know what happened in Latin America? ALERTA Latam Observatory Monthly Bulletin – June 2026
The UNDP warns of a crisis of legitimacy in Latin American democracies
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a report analysing democracies and their development in Latin America. The report begins by characterising Latin America as the most democratic developing region in the world, with more than four out of every five citizens living under elected governments.
However, the greatest risk facing Latin American democracies today is not collapse, but erosion. The figures underpinning this assessment show that 32.6 per cent of the population say they are satisfied with the functioning of democracy, compared with 38.6 per cent in 1995. In contrast, 25.2 per cent say they do not care whether they have a democratic or an authoritarian government, a figure that has also risen by almost 10 per cent since 1995.
In line with this, there is disillusionment with the democratic electoral process, as trust in electoral authorities fell from 47 per cent to 34 per cent between 2016 and 2024, and the proportion of those who consider elections in their country to be fraudulent rose from 48.5 per cent to 60.6 per cent.
Based on this analysis, the report identifies five emerging pressures. The first is political polarisation, which has shifted from a difference of opinion to a confrontation between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The second is transnational organised crime, described as an actor vying for a monopoly on coercion. Added to these are disinformation and artificial intelligence, large-scale human mobility, and the triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution).
The report warns that these trends have not led to a widespread collapse, but they have significantly eroded the quality and legitimacy of the region’s political systems. Political violence, in this context, has taken on increasingly confrontational forms: four out of every ten countries with the highest levels of political violence in the world are currently in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ecuador: the murder of prosecutor Bravo Cedeño exposes the collapse of safeguards for those investigating organised crime
Gloria Alexandra Bravo Cedeño, a prosecutor with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Manta, was murdered alongside her sister on 14 June 2026. Gloria was investigating cases of murder, kidnapping and organised crime in the province of Manabí. Some time ago, she had spoken to Human Rights Watch about the dangers of working as a prosecutor in the country’s current political and social climate.
The truth is that Gloria’s murder is not an isolated incident; rather, it is part of a wider pattern in Ecuador. She is the third prosecutor to be murdered in Manta since 2022, and since 2020 at least 26 judges, prosecutors and judicial officials have been killed across the country. In May this year, two other officials from the public prosecutor’s office were murdered, and in the same month, Judge Lady Pachar was also executed.
President Daniel Noboa has already declared a state of emergency on multiple occasions since taking office in November 2023. In January 2024, he declared an internal armed conflict in the country, and on the very day that Prosecutor Bravo was murdered – 16 June – he once again signed a decree imposing a state of emergency for 60 days in ten provinces across the country. In the same decree, the president noted that 879 homicides were recorded between 1 May and 12 June.
Ecuador is currently experiencing a serious crisis of security and violence. In a 2026 report, Human Rights Watch noted that the president’s security strategy has failed to curb the violence and has led to an increase in reports of human rights violations.
Peru: the IACHR brings a case against Peru before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights over the lack of recognition of gender identity in the country
On 18 June 2026, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced that it had filed a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Peruvian State for the lack of comprehensive legal recognition of the gender identity of Karen Mañuca Quiroz Cabanillas.
The action is based on Peru’s obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights to guarantee equality before the law, non-discrimination and the right to identity – rights enshrined in Articles 1.1, 18 and 24 of the Convention.
Peru lacks a gender identity law that would allow for the change of name and gender markers on identity documents through administrative channels; such changes must currently be sought through the courts. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has already ruled on this type of obstacle in 2017 in Advisory Opinion OC-24/17, declaring them incompatible with inter-American standards. Access to recognition of gender identity cannot be made conditional on medical, psychological or judicial requirements.
Bolivia: the political divide deepens
The situation surrounding the social conflict in Bolivia is only getting worse. Since protests and road blockades began, organised by social groups such as trade unions, indigenous peoples and peasant organisations, the political rift has remained unhealed.
The demands all centre on calls for President Rodrigo Paz to resign, following his announcement of structural reforms that would significantly affect these groups.
Furthermore, significant social unrest has developed: five indirect deaths have already been reported due to the inability to receive medical care as a result of roadblocks, and hospitals in La Paz were declared to be in a state of emergency due to a lack of oxygen.
Against this backdrop, on 28 May, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in South America expressed concern over those killed or injured during operations to clear the roadblocks, demanding that independent and impartial investigations be carried out.
On 19 June, the government and the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation reached an agreement under which the State undertook not to privatise strategic companies, to review the pensions law and not to criminalise protest. However, just a few hours after the agreement was signed, Paz declared a 90-day state of emergency across Bolivia, deploying police forces to clear the roads.
The state of emergency will not resolve the political tensions in Bolivian politics, nor does it suspend the state’s international human rights obligations; therefore, opportunities for dialogue between the parties must remain a priority.
Venezuela: the IACHR condemns the systematic use of torture in Venezuelan detention centres
On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, observed on 10 June, the IACHR condemned the systematic use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against persons deprived of their liberty in Venezuelan detention centres under the control of state security forces.
The statement is based on testimonies documented by the Commission itself during successive monitoring periods, and forms part of the structural pattern of violations that characterises the country’s prisons.
In its role as the guardian of human rights in the region, the IACHR urged the Venezuelan State to ensure conditions of detention in line with international standards. It also called for independent access to prisons to be granted and for internal investigations to be carried out.
The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is worsening following the devastating earthquakes in June.
The earthquakes that struck the state of La Guaira, in northern Venezuela, during June have exacerbated a humanitarian situation already marked by years of economic, institutional and social crisis. According to estimates by the United Nations, between 6 and 8 million people may have been affected by the disaster, whilst preliminary figures put the death toll at over 1,400, with more than 3,000 injured and tens of thousands missing, as search and rescue operations continue.
The consequences of the earthquakes have once again highlighted the country’s structural limitations in responding to large-scale emergencies. The destruction of homes, the collapse of essential infrastructure, the displacement of thousands of families and difficulties in accessing basic services have increased the need for protection and humanitarian assistance amongst large sections of the population.
Against this backdrop, international organisations have highlighted the need to strengthen international cooperation and ensure a coordinated response capable of supporting displaced people, guaranteeing access to essential services and mitigating the impact of a disaster that threatens to further exacerbate the country’s pre-existing conditions of vulnerability.
UNICEF warns that one in three children in the region faces at least three simultaneous climate-related risks
UNICEF presented a report in Panama City on climate-related risks to children. The document provides a detailed analysis of the exposure of children in Latin America and the Caribbean to multiple, combined climate-related threats.
The findings are alarming: around 58 million children and adolescents in the region – approximately one in three – are at risk of facing at least three climate-related hazards simultaneously. This has direct consequences for their health, their access to education and their chances of survival.
The organisation maps exposure to eight hazards: coastal flooding, droughts, extreme heat, wildfires, heatwaves, river flooding, sandstorms and tropical storms. This translates to 141 million children exposed to increasing heatwaves in Latin America, and 118 million facing the risk of droughts. Meanwhile, the Caribbean faces the highest exposure to tropical storms, compounded by air pollution that affects all children in the region.
Furthermore, climate threats do not strike uniformly; rather, they disproportionately exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, affecting the most vulnerable communities with greater severity. For this very reason, the role of the region’s governments is central: they must strengthen child-centred social protection systems and adopt a comprehensive, child-rights-based approach in their climate policies.
Colombia faces elections that will determine the course of the peace process and the security model
On 21 June 2026, Colombia held the second round of the presidential election, which was a very close contest. The candidates were the incumbent senator, Iván Cepeda, and the businessman Abelardo de la Espriella. Both held opposing views on the state, security and peace.
Cepeda, for his part, sought to represent continuity in the peace process and to be a successor to the government of the current president, Petro. In contrast, de la Espriella put forward disruptive ideas such as the construction of mega-prisons, a reduced state presence and an end to negotiations with paramilitary groups.
The social context in which the elections took place is no minor factor. The country’s armed conflict shows no sign of abating; in fact, it has intensified in recent years at the hands of dissident groups, which have also expanded their control over the most vulnerable rural areas. Indeed, with these endogenous factors influencing the context, the second-round elections saw the country’s highest-ever turnout, with 63 per cent of registered voters casting their ballots.
Against this backdrop, De la Espriella won the second round by a margin of less than one percentage point.
In this context, both the winning candidate’s political programme and the narrow electoral margin by which he secured victory call into question not only his legitimacy but also raise questions about how the peace process the country has been undergoing since 2016 will be reshaped, whether the commitment made by the previous government to the victims of the conflict will continue, and what regional stance Colombia will adopt on the world stage.
Argentina: a dispute over economic sovereignty and control of strategic resources
Javier Milei’s government confirmed that the concession for the Paraná-Paraguay waterway had been awarded to a consortium comprising the Belgian company Jan De Nul and the local firm Servimagnus. This is Argentina’s most important waterway, stretching over 1,400 kilometres, along which more than 80 per cent of the country’s exports are transported.
The decision has reignited a strategic debate on economic sovereignty. The concession was awarded for 25 years – a quarter of a century – to the Belgian company, which is no stranger to the Paraná River. The corporation had previously held the concession, managing the waterway for 25 years (1995–2021), a period marred by international corruption scandals.
Critics of the decision seek to warn of the loss of state control over a logistics corridor of great geopolitical importance in the region. However, the debate goes beyond mere logistics. In reality, the aim is to highlight the concentration of business in the hands of foreign companies within a sector that operates on the region’s strategic resources.
In a geopolitical context characterised by competition for commercial control and the seizure of strategic resources, foreign control of the Paraná River becomes a battleground for sovereignty that demands the presence of the Argentine state.
