In the impossible quest for a kind of representation transparent enough to suppress the anxieties created by democracy, the moments between elections become crucial for sustaining the legitimacy of a political regime. This is where the issue of transparency in government and the right to information it ensues should be anchored: on the permanent, non-electoral mechanisms through which governments and public officials relate, and are accountable, to citizens. From this conceptual point of view, the right to information and government transparency policies are part of the social accountability mechanisms through which citizens keep their government in check. A transparent government by default is an accountable government, provided that the institutions of civil society which are supposed to take advantage of these mechanisms are capable to operate effectively (e.g., political parties, media outlets, civil society organizations, and so on). In this paper I describe the legal history of the right to information, the general principles adopted in Latin America as a region (as a result of some sort of jurisprudential dialogue between different jurisdictions) and map new trends in the freedom of information movement landscape, the challenges it still faces and the weaknesses which limit it as a path towards democratic accountability.