A court in Venezuela’s mineral-rich state of Bolívar has sentenced David Natera, the 74-year-old publisher of one of the state’s last independent newspapers, to four years in prison for criminal defamation.

2015 has been a dramatic year in elections around the world: old leaders were toppled, upstarts and novices seized the helm, and embattled governments somehow managed to cling on. Here, the experts who covered them take stock of what’s happened—and look at what’s in store for 2016.

As if an economic slowdown and massive corruption scandals weren’t enough, Brazil might have to rethink its political alliance with a chaotic Venezuela.