The Hour of Autonomy

Many of the Latin American battalions of discontent created by the crisis adopted the flag of autonomy, each in their own way. The established powers, for their part, had very diverse reactions to these autonomic initiatives. To provide an overview, considering such diversity in the autonomous struggles and the reactions they provoke, I describe herein two conflicting impulses that shape the notions of autonomy currently adopted in Latin America: those who try to achieve some form of autonomy, and those who seek to regulate and control it. I frame both impulses within the struggles for democracy currently being waged in the region at the end of an historical cycle.