Francisco Letelier, “Flower Power,” 30x40in, 2025 (courtesy Amy Kaslow Gallery).

Citizens across the globe are reeling from the explosive proliferation of autocracies in recent years, which have left more countries run by roughshod regimes than governments protecting basic civil liberties. This year, the US became a dangerous frontrunner among rogue states snatching sovereignty away from citizens by seizing control over courts, commerce, and communications. The equation is also changing fast in Central and Latin America due to the influence of US power over the region. In the recent past, US foreign politics were conflicted and without focus; it forced out military juntas, ushered in civilian elections, birthed fledgling democracies, occupied countries, made deals with dictators, started wars, ended wars, created wealth, stripped natural resources and wreaked chaos on the continent in little more than a hundred years. As the Harvard Review of Latin America ReVista calculated some 20 years ago, by then the superpower had already launched an overthrow or intervention every 28 months since the late 1800s.

When civil society suffers, the creative response is often at its most poignant and powerful. Because of this, autocrats often target art, media, and culture to eliminate any distractions from their overriding message: to ensure sameness without challenge. The nine artists in the Art and Autocracy in the Americas exhibition — American sculptor Mimi Herbert; Cuban painters Jabriel Lafrance and Sandra Dooley; Colombian painter Fabio Mesa and Colombian muralist DJ LU; Haitian voodoo flag maker Valentin Valris; Mexican illustrator Juana Estrada Hernández; The Markaz Review’s Chilean-American painter Francisco Letelier; and Peruvian pop artist Amapolay — show the stirring, often stunning effects of resistance.

Read more in The Markaz Review.