Valentina Wielewicki is in the final year of her bachelor’s degree in International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo. She has a deep academic interest in International Security and Political Economy, and her research focus is China and the Indo-Pacific. Over the course of the past few years, she has worked as a researcher and analyst of international trade and political risk, and as a volunteer at SEWING, helping empower women in Ghana through education and economic development.
Political polarisation has risen almost everywhere over the past two decades. Does it lead to political violence? Looking at Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, this essay finds the link clearest in Brazil, where affective polarisation in the Bolsonaro era culminated in the 8 January riots and a coup co…
The 2026 electoral cycle in Latin America occurs in an increasingly unstable geopolitical scenario, and will likely have longstanding political and economic effects in the region.