On August 19, 2019, the hashtag #PrayForAmazonia reached the top trends of Brazilian Twitter. As wildfires rapidly spread across the Amazon Rainforest, thousands of social media users turned their attention toward the international crisis.
In theory, President Santos’ accord with the FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, had ended a 52-year civil war that had claimed the lives of some 220,000 Colombians. In practice, the war continued.
The optimistic takeaway is that this election was a vote of confidence in the status quo. But perhaps the more realistic reading of the results is that neither party made a compelling case for why they deserved greater legislative control.
Opposition came from within the government itself, especially through political competition at the municipal level and institutional blockage at the national level.
Conservatives across the globe are continuing to rally behind a scientifically debunked claim that climate change isn’t happening. If conservatives don’t get up to speed soon, they risk slipping further into the irrelevance of their old ways.
In the end, Pérez Jiménez transformed the city, but he did not transform hearts and minds. Although the buildings still stand, his government’s legacy most certainly does not.
Despite human rights violations against indigenous and disenfranchised communities, the courts of previously imperial powers still tend to favor corporate interests, much to the disrespect and neglect of indigenous ontologies.
