Weekly Report - 01 March 2018 (WR-18-08)

Brazil’s President Michel Temer is armed with a new political strategy.... Read More

At least five Colombian soldiers were killed on 27 February, and a further 10 injured, when Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) guerrillas ambushed a military convoy.... Read More

Henri Falcón registered his candidacy by the deadline of 27 February to compete in presidential elections brought forward by the government led by President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

The official campaigning period ahead of Paraguay’s 22 April presidential and congressional elections has yet to begin, but the political opposition has already presented legal challenges against two prominent candidates from the ruling Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC).... Read More

President Tabaré Vázquez has come under intense public scrutiny over allegations that he may have engaged in nepotism.... Read More

An Argentine suggestion of reciprocity covering the health costs incurred by Argentine citizens in Bolivia, and by Bolivian citizens in Argentina, was initially rejected by La Paz, but is now likely to go ahead.... Read More

Chile’s President-elect Sebastián Piñera, who is due to assume office on 11 March, continued with the process of forming his government by appointing regional governors (intendentes) for the country’s soon to be 16 regions (see sidebar) on 26 February.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Construction drives growth.... Read More

At a time when bilateral negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) and other topics are at a complex and tricky stage, Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and Donald Trump of the US have again been unable to agree on a face-to-face meeting.... Read More

Ricardo Anaya, the presidential candidate for the right-to-left alliance Por México al Frente, currently running in second place in the opinion polls, is facing increasingly intense allegations of corruption.... Read More

MEXICO | Economy slows.... Read More

The first opinion surveys released since the first round of presidential elections on 4 February show a dead heat between the evangelical pastor Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, of the small conservative Restauración Nacional (RN), and Carlos Alvarado Quesada, of the ruling centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), ahead of the run-off on 1 April.... Read More

CENTRAL AMERICA | CPI.... Read More

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet visited Japan from 22 to 26 February, her last official visit before she hands over power to Sebastián Piñera on 11 March.... Read More

“The problem with [former president Lula da Silva] not being a candidate is that he could become a myth, and as a mythical figure he could influence the elections even if he is not participating in them.”... Read More