Weekly Report - 12 March 2026 (WR-26-10)

Colombia’s ruling Pacto Histórico performed better than any left-wing coalition in the country’s history in congressional elections on 8 March and will be the largest bloc in both the senate and the lower chamber of congress when new senators and deputies take their seats in July.... Read More

Having successfully dictated a sweeping reform to Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law in late January, US President Donald Trump’s administration is now turning its attention to the country’s mining sector.... Read More

Ecuador’s main opposition party, the left-wing Revolución Ciudadana (RC) that was founded by former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), was handed a nine-month suspension on 6 March as an investigation continues into its financing of the 2023 presidential campaign.... Read More

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) condemned Peru on 5 March for the forced sterilisation and subsequent death of Celia Ramos Durand in 1997 during the so-called national reproductive health and family planning programme of the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), which primarily targeted poor, indigenous women.... Read More

José Antonio Kast took office on 11 March as Chile’s 38th president for a four-year term, promising an “emergency government” to tackle crime, illegal migration, and the economy.... Read More

Members of congress have been piling pressure on Brazil’s supreme court (STF) by increasing their efforts to launch a congressional committee inquiry (CPI) to investigate suspected connections between STF justices and Banco Master, the controversial bank which collapsed in November and has been the subject of a fraud investigation.... Read More

The small left-wing party Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) decided on 7 March to reject a proposal to join a party federation with the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.... Read More

Days after his appointment last week as Argentina’s new justice minister, Juan Bautista Mahiques has announced plans to appoint 200 new judges.... Read More

BRAZIL | Industrial production rises in monthly terms.... Read More

US President Donald Trump launched the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition on 7 March.... Read More

Protests took place in Mexico City (CDMX) and other cities across the country to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March.... Read More

MEXICO | USMCA negotiations.... Read More

The selection processes are now complete for Guatemala’s five-member electoral court (TSE) and five-member constitutional court, the first two of four judicial institutions due to be overhauled this year, with the attorney general’s office, and comptroller general’s office (CGC) also up for re-election.... Read More

A group of international jurists filed a report on 10 March with the ‌Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) suggesting that there were reasonable grounds to believe that authorities in El Salvador were committing crimes against humanity.... Read More

“Today begins our second term, with a strong and committed bench we will begin a new stage of transformation.”... Read More