Weekly Report - 18 June 2026 (WR-26-24)

The US military killed the leader of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal group, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores (‘Niño Guerrero’), in an air strike on Venezuelan soil on 12 June.... Read More

Peru’s right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular (FP) has slowly but surely opened up a gap on her left-wing rival Roberto Sánchez of the left-wing coalition Juntos por el Perú (JPP) to some 39,000 votes with 99.4% of the vote counted.... Read More

Bolivia’s beleaguered president, Rodrigo Paz, held talks with the country’s main trade union Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) on 17 June.... Read More

Three closing polls all point towards the far-right populist candidate Abelardo de la Espriella winning the second round of Colombia’s presidential elections on 21 June against the left-wing continuity candidate Iván Cepeda.... Read More

Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg announced the capture of Ronald Javier Macías Villamar (‘Javi’) in Colombia on 17 June.... Read More

A panel of four judges on the supreme court (STF) pronounced a guilty verdict on 16 June against former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro (2015-2025) for seeking to coerce judicial authorities in 2025 during the trial of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), who was ultimately convicted by the STF last September for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election.... Read More

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the G7 summit held in the French town of Évian-les-Bains from 15-17 June.... Read More

The pressure continues to mount on Manuel Adorni.... Read More

BRAZIL | Retail sales decline in monthly terms.... Read More

Mexico’s Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) teachers’ union has stated that it will continue its national strike action, calling for more protests across the country.... Read More

The murder of Joel Ángel Bravo Martínez, the mayor of San Miguel Amatitlán municipality in Oaxaca state, has once again shone a light on the issue of political violence in Mexico.... Read More

Hopes that a fuel shipment from US firm Vanguard Energy might bring desperately needed relief to Cuba [WR-26-23] were thwarted after Washington recently blocked the deal, denying the company a licence, at the same time as designating Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company, Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet), in line with its hardening of sanctions announced on 1 May.... Read More

Less than two months into her mandate, Costa Rica’s conservative President Laura Fernández has unveiled a package of security-related legislation aimed at tackling insecurity.... Read More

The Dominican Republic’s government led by President Luis Abinader has unveiled a new legislative package, which seeks to raise between RD$40bn and RD$50bn (US$683m-US$854m) through increasing existing taxes or introducing new ones to address the rise in oil prices and its impact as a result of the war in the Middle East.... Read More

United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres has made his second official visit to Haiti in the job, having last visited nearly three years ago [WR-23-27].... Read More

“Narco-terrorism is the cancer that gnaws away at our societies and we will fight it relentlessly, with an iron fist and without hesitation.”... Read More