LatinNews Regional Monitor: Andean Group - 15 January 2018

Development: On 14 January, the local authorities in Colombia’s eastern department of Arauca confirmed that a contractor of the state-owned oil firm, Ecopetrol, had been kidnapped by presumed members of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) insurgent guerrillas.... Read More

Venezuela: The governor of Venezuela’s central Guárico state, José Vásquez, has reported that 22 shops and local food distribution centres had been affected by the looting on 13 January in the Guárico locality of Calabozo.... Read More

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) published its updated estimates and forecasts for the regional economies in 2017 and 2018 on 14 December.... Read More

Chronic shortages of US dollars are causing numerous economic problems for the Venezuelan government.... Read More

Peru experienced an intense political crisis for two weeks in December, leading to a formal vote to impeach President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.... Read More

As our Special Focus on Mexico shows (see below), notwithstanding intensifying external and internal pressure most governments in Latin America, along with the judiciary, the police, and other state agencies, are still struggling to respond adequately to corruption.... Read More

In removing his vice president, President Lenín Moreno has made a definitive break with the radical faction of the ruling Alianza País (AP) that remains loyal to his predecessor, Rafael Correa (2007-2017).... Read More

As we went to press on 9 January, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its latest short-term energy outlook, in which it projected that US crude oil production would average 10.3m b/d in 2018, the highest annual average production in US history, surpassing the previous record of 9.6m b/d set in 1970.... Read More

Coca-Cola move in Chile... Read More