Over the past decade the commitment of governments in the region to democratic standards has wavered, in some cases considerably

Latin America’s Wavering Democracies

by Arch Puddington

Vice President for Research

Read more here: www.freedomhouse.org

...... the region’s largest and most economically powerful country, Brazil, has experienced a strengthening of free institutions even as it has notched years of impressive economic growth.  Chile and Uruguay continue to rank among the world’s leading democracies, and Colombia has registered gains for civil liberties as its violent insurgencies wind down. As the first graph below indicates, fully half of the region’s 20 countries hold a Freedom House ranking of Free, and only Cuba falls into the Not Free category.