Subsequent, Mary Meyer McAleese, Ph.D, professor of political science, turned the audience’s interest to Brazil, a nation that held a presidential election final year that led to protests on January eight that had been related to the January six insurrection in Washington, D.C., in 2021. She also noted substantial-scale anti-government protests in Peru and Mexico. “In Latin America,” she added, “people are truly angry about the economy and corruption. There’s higher inflation, and the elites manage most of the wealth.”
Michael Burch, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, pointed to the huge protests final fall in Iran more than 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody in September immediately after her arrest for “improperly wearing” her hijab. Burch noted that protests had been held not just in the capital of Tehran but in rural regions and even through the opening of the 2022 Planet Cup soccer tournament, when Iranian players refused to sing their country’s national anthem.
“But there was a really sturdy response to quell the protests,” Burch added. “There had been hundreds of arrests and the use of physical violence, such as utilizing rubber bullets that had been shot into the eyes of the protesters.”
