Weekly Report - 18 April 2024 (WR-24-15)

Argentina’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, caused diplomatic ructions with Bolivia and Chile this week by denouncing the presence in their countries of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah or Quds Force, the overseas wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).... Read More

On 18 April the US government reversed the relaxation of oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela that had been in force for the preceding six months in return for the government of Nicolás Maduro convening presidential elections with some semblance of fairness.... Read More

This has not stopped opposition politicians from expressing a deep lack of trust in Petro.... Read More

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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expressed “concern about the possible escalation of tensions” between Guyana and Venezuela on 16 April over their territorial dispute in the Essequibo region.... Read More

PERU | Growth up in annual terms.... Read More

In a press conference on 11 April, the president of Brazil’s lower chamber of congress, Arthur Lira (Progressistas, PP), insulted Alexandre Padilha (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), the federal government’s institutional relations minister in charge of coordinating its legislative agenda with party whips of the left-of-centre ruling coalition, among other responsibilities.... Read More

Amid long-running concerns of excessive use of force by Brazilian police, the supreme court (STF) has heard a case regarding deaths or injuries from stray bullets.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Foreign minister affirms Brazil partnership.... Read More

Mexico’s supreme court (SCJN) announced on 17 April that it will investigate Arturo Zaldívar, the former chief justice of the SCJN, for “administrative failings”.... Read More

Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo has encountered one of his first major challenges from the legislature since taking office mid-January after it blocked a 30-day state of calamity that he decreed in response to forest fires.... Read More

The alleged rape of a Haitian girl by a Dominican immigration agent has caused uproar in the Dominican Republic, where the government led by President Luis Abinader is already facing pressure to address its treatment of migrants – particularly from neighbouring Haiti.... Read More

Noboa provided no details of where acts of sabotage might have taken place, or who might have been behind them, but he promised an official investigation.... Read More

“I insist that if the Argentine security minister has evidence she presents it and cooperates rather than making such quickfire allegations without [evidence] to prove absolutely anything.”... Read More