Roberto Simon, senior director for policy at AS/COA, spoke to Business Insider Today about the protests in Chile.

“People are in the streets because they’re frustrated. They have been promised a lot, particularly middle-class Chileans, promised access to healthcare, education,” said Simon. “They feel things have not improved as fast as they wanted. At the same time, you have a political system that has lost its appeal to the majority of Chileans.”

Simon stated that economists usually look at Chile and see a positive story because of the country’s successful reduction of poverty and high income per capita. However, he also said that for young families, healthcare costs and education are growing much faster than wages and pensioners do not receive enough money to pay their bills.

“The system worked really well for a small group of people, but for the majority of Chileans, politicians don’t care, they’re disengaged, they’re not interested in the common people,” said Simon.

When asked about President Sebastián Piñera's economic measures to contain the protests, Simon explained the phases in the government’s reaction to the social unrest. First, they were in denial, with President Sebastián Piñera appearing on television to say, “We are at war with protesters.” Later, the president proposed a major policy shift, abandoning policy proposal such as tax reform, which were already in Congress.”

Simon also emphasized the importance of Chile’s intention to change its Constitution, which has existed since the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Since there is a diverse group of people protesting in the streets, he said, “It’s unclear that you have one policy response that can really satisfy a majority of Chileans.”

Watch the full interview.

Guillermo Zubillaga, the head of AS/COA's Venezuela Working Group, spoke to Business Insider Today about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"The economic situation has gotten worse—the repression, extrajudicial killings, use of torture, the censoring of the press—all those things have gotten worse," he said. "The other thing of course is the deterioration of public services like electricity or water."

Due to Venezuelans moving away in large numbers, the fiscal standings of neighboring countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have been compromised because they cannot sustain the size or rapid increase of the migration flow.

"The Venezuelan exodus is only second largest to Syria and it's projected to be even bigger," he said.

Zubillaga also stated that Venezuelans do not have access to cash and experience difficulty when procuring necessities.

"The average Venezuelan goes to a market, goes to a store and they see prices that they cannot afford," he said. "They see prices of a deodorant that is equivalent to their monthly minimum wage."

When asked why Juan Guaidó's opposition movement, which earlier this year inspired protests and calls to oust President Nicolás Maduro, lost momentum, Zubillaga explained that it is difficult for people to simultaneously protest and provide for themselves.

"It's really hard for a big portion of the population to maintain themselves in the streets, to stay in the streets, actively engaged in trying to find a political solution to a brutal dictatorship that has lately increased, and strategically, the numbers of extrajudicial killings."

Watch the full interview.

Carin Zissis, editor-in-chief of AS/COA Online, spoke with Univision News about the nine people killed in Mexico on November 4th. Mexican authorities said today that the weapons used in the attack were American-made.

“Mexican authorities have, for a long time, been asking for the United States to do more to prevent these guns from coming into Mexico,” said Zissis. “Assault weapons actually go for more than they go for in the United States. That’s the economics driving it, plus the smuggling driving it, and it’s feeding the violence here.”

Zissis provided a contrast between the two countries, stating that there is only one, heavily guarded gun shop in Mexico, while there are over 60,000 gun shops and dealers in the United States. She also cited the lax gun laws in the southwest border, explaining that there are limited checks coming into Mexico on the southern border.

“After what happened in Culiacán with El Chapo’s son, the botched arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, the U.S. government, in particular the U.S. Embassy here in Mexico, talked about increasing surveillance at the southern border in order to prevent some of that smuggling,” said Zissis.

“Some of that’s still developing and we’ll see if it comes to fruition. It’s been years that the Mexican government has been asking for this to be attended to.”

When asked if people in Mexico, or even the United States, can expect any kind of justice, Zissis said, “more work to get a handle on impunity, improvement of rule of law, reforms in the police forces” are what can be done to see change.