Weekly Report - 10 September 2015 (WR-15-36)

The resignation of Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina on 3 September amid corruption allegations, three days before the staging of general elections, led to predictions of a new era of accountability and a sign that the notorious impunity afflicting the country would no longer be tolerated.... Read More

One of the most unlikely political alliances was sealed in the Dominican Republic on 7 September.... Read More

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has continued to switch from conciliatory language to actions that exacerbate the tensions with Colombia that have been rising since he first closed a stretch of border with Colombia on 19 August and started deporting illegal Colombian immigrants, triggering a wave of voluntary repatriations.... Read More

It is budget season and in Ecuador and Colombia finance ministries are drawing red lines through all non-essential expenditure, as oil export earnings look set to remain weak next year.... Read More

In a rare, and partial, mea culpa to mark Independence Day on 7 September, President Dilma Rousseff acknowledged that some mistakes may have been made by her government.... Read More

At the start of the year, the consensus among the economists surveyed by the central bank’s weekly Focus bulletin was that Brazil would grow by 0.5% in 2015 and by 1.8% in 2016.... Read More

Four recent opinion polls in Argentina have shown how difficult it currently is to predict whether the presidential election on 25 October will go to a second round.... Read More

President Tabaré Vázquez announced on 7 September that Uruguay was pulling out of international negotiations on a trade in services agreement (Tisa).... Read More

Long beset by opposition accusations of corruption, the administration of President Cristina Fernández appears to be enjoying the chance to turn the tables and question the probity of the centre-right opposition Propuesta Republicana (PRO).... Read More

President Michelle Bachelet is desperately trying to arrest the inexorable slide in her approval rating.... Read More

CHILE | Central bank revises down growth estimate... Read More

Mexico’s single highest profile criminal investigation – into the abduction and presumed murder of 43 student teachers in Iguala, Guerrero state, on 26 September 2014 – may have been fundamentally flawed.... Read More

The People’s National Movement (PNM) under Dr Keith Rowley triumphed in the general elections in Trinidad & Tobago on 7 September, consigning the People’s Partnership (PP) of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to defeat after just one term in power.... Read More

“For 20 years I have made Guatemalans laugh, I promise never to make them cry.” Jimmy Morales, the victor after the first round of Guatemala’s presidential elections.... Read More