Weekly Report - 29 May 2025 (WR-25-21)

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is chasing dollars at home and abroad to strengthen the peso, keep his economic recovery plan on track, and do well in midterm elections just over four months away.... Read More

Legislative and regional elections held in Venezuela on 25 May were a roaring success, according to President Nicolás Maduro’s government, and a major embarrassment for Maduro, marked by high abstention rates, according to the opposition.... Read More

Colombian trade unions and social groups allied with President Gustavo Petro held a 48-hour general strike from 28-29 May to express support for the government’s labour reform bill amid rising tensions between the president and congress.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa kicked off his new four-year term on 24 May with ambitious plans to step up the battle on organised crime, push energy investments, and streamline the state without imposing drastic austerity measures.... Read More

The spokesperson for Bolivia’s supreme electoral court (TSE), Tahuichi Tahuichi Quispe, has emphatically ruled out the prospect of former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) competing in the 17 August general elections.... Read More

BOLIVIA | Chinese and Russian lithium contracts in doubt.... Read More

Brazilian government officials announced a budget freeze as well as a tax hike on 22 May.... Read More

Having hinted on 21 May that the US is considering imposing sanctions on Brazilian supreme court (STF) justice Alexandre de Moraes, on 28 May US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to ramp up the pressure on De Moraes by announcing that the US will refuse visas to “foreign nationals who censor Americans”.... Read More

PARAGUAY | Gov’t makes progress on trade in Asia tour.... Read More

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has accused teachers affiliated with the influential Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) teachers’ union of planning to boycott the upcoming judicial elections.... Read More

Security forces in Mexico are keeping the pressure on Los Chapitos, the faction of the Cártel de Sinaloa that is led by four sons of the imprisoned Mexican kingpin Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera.... Read More

MEXICO | BBVA unveils major investment.... Read More

Suriname held national elections on 25 May with the two main parties winning an almost equal number of seats in the legislature.... Read More

The government of President José Raúl Mulino declared a state of emergency in Bocas del Toro, a province where, after a month-long strike over pension reform, just under 5,000 plantation workers have been sacked by Chiquita Panamá, the local subsidiary of multinational banana company Chiquita Brands International.... Read More

“This provides a unique and unrepeatable opportunity to reach justice and peace,” Chile’s President Gabriel Boric said on 22 May in reference to a report drawn up by the presidential commission for peace and understanding, after two years of deliberations, which contains recommendations for resolving the intractable Mapuche conflict in the south of the country.​... Read More

“What’s yours is yours and you can spend it how you like without having to show at every turn where you got it from.”... Read More