Weekly Report - 25 April 2024 (WR-24-16)

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa celebrated victory in a national referendum staged on 21 April which will enable him to intensify the crackdown on criminal gangs responsible for a surge in violence in the country.... Read More

There are signs that an increasingly united Venezuelan opposition is troubling President Nicolás Maduro ahead of the 28 July election.... Read More

The net appears to be drawing in on Peru’s suspended attorney general, Patricia Benavides, who was removed from her post in December after being accused of leading a corruption ring [WR-23-48].... Read More

President Javier Milei faced one of the biggest marches of recent times in Argentina on 23 April just over four months after taking office.... Read More

When he took office in January last year, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared his intention to support the land rights of indigenous communities, promising to demarcate more indigenous territories (TIs), especially following the previous governments of centre-right former president Michel Temer (2016-2018) and far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), when no TIs were given protected demarcated status.... Read More

The president of Brazil’s central bank (BCB), Roberto Campos Neto, attended a G20 event in Washington DC on 18 April, in which he expressed uncertainty over the road ahead for monetary policy in Brazil.... Read More

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric has called for strengthened cooperation between countries in the region to fight against organised crime.... Read More

Claudia Sheinbaum, the current frontrunner in Mexico’s 2 June presidential elections, has stated that she plans to keep state oil company Pemex afloat by refinancing the company’s debt and pivoting towards renewable energies if she is elected.... Read More

Mexico’s federal lower chamber approved controversial reforms to two laws on 24 April, following their approval in the senate a week earlier.... Read More

MEXICO | Pensions.... Read More

With less than two weeks until Panama’s general elections on 5 May, major uncertainty persists – not least ongoing doubts surrounding the candidacy of the frontrunner, former security minister José Raúl Mulino (2010-2014), which has been challenged in the courts on a technicality.... Read More

Amid doubts regarding the long-term viability of the Panama Canal due to drought and climate change [WR-23-32], Panama’s government has recently unveiled a new, alternative ‘Multimodal Dry Canal’ to move cargo between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through existing roads, railways, and other infrastructure.... Read More

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro faced the largest protests of his presidency on 21 April, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets around the country to demonstrate against his progressive reform agenda.... Read More

“We have defended the country, now we will have more tools to combat organised crime and restore peace to Ecuadorean families.”... Read More