Weekly Report - 14 July 2016 (WR-16-27)

Political parties in Brazil are often less expressions of shared ideologies than clubs for the promotion of self-interest.... Read More

An Argentine federal cassation judge has overruled an earlier judicial decision regarding allegations that a faction of the Frente para la Victoria (FPV, Kirchneristas) led by the governor of the province of Santa Cruz Alicia Kirchner, part of the main opposition Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists), forced compulsory political memberships on provincial civil servants.... Read More

President Mauricio Macri’s attempt to reduce heavy energy subsidies by raising gas prices has run into more legal trouble.... Read More

After a year of deliberations the trial over the so-called ‘Curuguaty massacre’ in which 17 people were killed in an armed clash between police and squatting landless farmers in Paraguay’s Canindeyú department on 15 June 2012, the event that acted as the catalyst for the impeachment of former president Fernando Lugo (2008-2012), concluded this week.... Read More

While President Nicolás Maduro took a defiant stance against the decision this week by the US-based Citibank to discontinue correspondent banking on behalf of the Venezuelan government and central bank, the stark reality is that it could severely complicate the country’s external financial transactions.... Read More

The state of exception and economic emergency was extended for another 60 days in the 13 July edition of the official gazette.... Read More

Fernando Zavala Lombardi will be Peru’s next prime minister.... Read More

In a clear sign that the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) are close to being concluded, this week the two sides launched a new pilot programme designed to eradicate coca plantations in Colombia.... Read More

President Rafael Correa has repeated that he does not intend to seek re-election in February 2017, but neither does he discount it completely, warning political opposition parties “not to rest on their laurels”.... Read More

COLOMBIA | Record inflation.... Read More

Mexican drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) are currently present in as much as 60% of the country’s states.... Read More

The federal government led by President Enrique Peña Nieto has acted quickly to block moves by outgoing state governors from the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) to protect themselves from prosecution on corruption charges.... Read More

At the end of last month a local think tank, Fundación Internacional para el Desafío Económico Global (Fideg), released poverty figures which differed from those presented late last year by the government agency Instituto Nacional de Información de Desarrollo (Inide).... Read More

Despite Argentina’s change in government last December – a political move from left to centre-right – Buenos Aires-Moscow bilateral relations remain good.... Read More

“It is well known that the house is brainless.”... Read More