Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Fuel inflation hits Latin America as a result of the Iran war, Peru’s presidential candidates ready for elections, and a new Netflix documentary series profiles a prosecutor fighting femicides in Mexico City.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Fuel inflation hits Latin America as a result of the Iran war, Peru’s presidential candidates ready for elections, and a new Netflix documentary series profiles a prosecutor fighting femicides in Mexico City.

High Fuel Prices, Low Approval Ratings

Energy supply strains related to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran have so far been less acute in Latin America compared to much of the developing world. Governments have not issued work-from-home decrees or rationed fuel, as they have in parts of Asia. But the global energy shock has still hit the region, bringing with it both economic pressures and heated political conversations.

Chile has experienced some of the most dramatic effects. On March 26, for example, the price of a common grade of gasoline jumped around 30 percent higher than the previous day, while the cost of diesel rose by 60 percent. President José Antonio Kast, who was inaugurated last month, hasn’t used much policy to control price hikes, mostly passing the cost on to Chileans.

The right-wing Kast’s approval rating has already dropped more than 10 percentage points since his inauguration, according to pollster Pulso Ciudadano.

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, public outcry over the price of gas caused the state energy company to partially walk back one of President Rodrigo Paz’s flagship pro-market policies: the removal of fuel subsidies. And in Peru, a presidential debate on Tuesday featured a discussion of the candidates’ proposals to ensure that gas is affordable.

Though getting rid of fuel subsidies can be politically risky, there is no guarantee that expanding them preserves leaders’ popularity. In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced a plan for diesel subsidies after the war began. But Lula, who is running for reelection in October, slipped in presidential polls to around the same level as his top competitor, Flávio........

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