Editor's letter

Abstract

Latin American Policy's (LAMP) second release for 2021 is particularly relevant, offering what can be called a double issue. In addition to bringing together a collection of seven articles on current topics that affect the region, it includes a thematic issue on the evolution of democratic practices in key Mexican states. LAMP is published twice yearly, yet the highly relevant research papers included in the thematic section make up a full issue on their own and deserve a space for publication. We are proud to present them this year as a double offering and to show that the journal boasts not only a growing audience but also a cadre of high-level researchers interested in publishing in our journal. Our first collection of works begins with Andrés Rivarola's article on regionalism and geopolitics, focusing on contributions from Latin America on the topic. Zdeněk Rod and Michal Himmer then consider the U.S. responses to a growing Chinese presence in Central America. Next, the COVID-19 pandemic is covered, through two articles that consider the regional response. Damasio Duval Rodrigues Neto analyzes the health policies Brazil adopted during the first 12 weeks of the crisis, and Luciano Ayala-Cantu, Federico Frattini, and Bruno Morando cover Mexicans' lockdown behavior as a reflection of the president's actions. Santiago L. Cunial shifts the focus to South America, covering the possible link between financing to develop solar energy in Colombian municipalities and the political alignment of these towns' mayors with the central government. On the hot topic of populism, Rubén Flores-González, Patricia Andrade del Cid, Alexia Raquel Ávalos-Rivera, and Mónica Torio-Hernández consider the Mexican president's daily speeches to draw a link between his empowerment as a leader and the populist discourse, which they say feeds and manages the anger of his constituency through communication, ideology, and strategy. Finally, Fernando Serrano and Jorge A. Schiavon argue that multiple individual and contextual factors, and what they call a perceived “Hispanic threat” in different states, have a significant effect on the attitudes of U.S. citizens toward immigration and the construction of the wall that Donald Trump promoted during his term in office. In the second section of this issue, Erika Estrada Ruiz, an electoral advisor with the Mexico City Electoral Institute, and Arturo Sánchez, a professor and researcher at the School of Government and Public Transformation of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, coordinated a thematic number entitled “Subnational Democratic Variation: A Comparative Overview of Strengths and Weaknesses of Democracy in the Mexican States.” This special issue includes 13 research papers, all of which underwent blind arbitration, on the different levels and types of advances that democratic practices have seen throughout the country. In the preamble that the coordinators have prepared for this special issue, they explain the context and history of this collection of works published here. I am deeply grateful for the professional effort they manifested in making this endeavor possible, and I thank them for having selected LAMP as the space to disseminate their research. Our readers will certainly find this thematic collection thought-provoking and useful.