Weekly Report - 19 February 2026 (WR-26-07)

Parties from across the political spectrum in Peru voted to remove President José Jerí from power on 17 February.... Read More

Venezuela saw its first coordinated anti-government protests in over a year on 12 February, when thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the country to demand the release of all political prisoners.... Read More

The mayor of the Ecuador’s coastal city of Guayaquil, Aquiles Álvarez, was arrested on 10 February for alleged money laundering and tax fraud, making him the latest high-profile opposition figure to be targeted by prosecutors in recent weeks.... Read More

COLOMBIA | Imports outstrip exports.... Read More

Argentina’s opposition-aligned labour movement Confederación General del Trabajo (GGT), together with other trade unions, launched a 24-hour general strike on 19 February to oppose the government’s labour reform bill.... Read More

Chile has established a reputation for pendulum politics over the last two decades but if there were any doubt that the swing that will take place on 11 March will be bigger than at any time since the return to democracy in 1990 it was put to rest by developments over the last two weeks, displaying the sharp contrast between President Gabriel Boric and President-elect José Antonio Kast’s foreign policy and domestic political priorities.... Read More

The high-profile fraud investigation involving the collapsed bank Banco Master has raised questions over the credibility of Brazil’s supreme court (STF), especially regarding the impartiality of STF justice José Antonio Dias Toffoli, who stepped down as the presiding judge of the case on 12 February.... Read More

One of Rio de Janeiro’s samba schools, Acadêmicos de Nitéroi, used its float at the Carnival parade on 15 February to pay a grand tribute to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.... Read More

BRAZIL | Petrobras waives right to control Braskem.... Read More

A delegation of Canadian government officials and hundreds of business representatives visited Mexico this week in a sign of the appetite to shore up economic ties between the two countries.... Read More

Mexico’s federal education ministry (SEP) has been the site of a heated dispute in the past week.... Read More

MEXICO | Pemex issues bonds on local markets.... Read More

The crucial process of selecting Guatemala’s new five-member constitutional court (CC), which along with the attorney general’s office (MP), five-member electoral court (TSE), and comptroller general’s office (CGC) is up for renewal this year, is underway.... Read More

Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has condemned the decision by the European Union (EU) to retain Panama on its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes – a list which is updated twice a year.... Read More

Colombia’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti, this week began the process of collecting signatures to convene a constituent assembly, a long-held ambition of President Gustavo Petro.... Read More

“In politics, as in love and war, you shouldn’t feel ashamed.... Read More