LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 23 March 2018

Development: On 22 March, Brazil’s supreme court (STF) ruled that the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) leader Lula da Silva could not be jailed until at least 4 April.... Read More

*Brazil's federal government froze R$2bn (US$606m) of spending.... Read More

Development: On 22 March the Uruguayan press published a series of reports from the state-owned bank, Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay (Brou), which appear to show that some of its executives diverted public funds to help finance political campaigns of the country’s centre-right opposition parties.... Read More

Argentina/Brazil: The US government led by President Donald Trump said it would exempt two South American countries – Argentina and Brazil – from its new aluminium and steel tariffs.... Read More

Former President Lula da Silva (2003-2011), the main hope for the Left in this year’s Brazilian presidential elections, was on a rollercoaster political ride this week.... Read More

One of Brazil’s larger political parties, the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), has formally proclaimed São Paulo state governor Gerardo Alckmin as its candidate for October’s presidential elections.... Read More

The Argentine government has called on Uruguay to cooperate with it to clamp down on the smuggling of illegal drugs across the shared border.... Read More

President Sebastián Piñera’s conciliatory rhetoric upon taking office for a second term earlier this month [WR-18-10] looks short-lived.... Read More

The Argentine government hosted a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-20 group of industrialised countries in the capital, Buenos Aires, on 20 and 21 March.... Read More