Weekly Report - 28 March 2018 (WR-18-12)

Martín Vizcarra delivered a confident inaugural address after being sworn-in as Peru’s new president on 23 March.... Read More

Iván Duque is the clear frontrunner in Colombia’s presidential race, according to a glut of opinion polls published in recent days.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno announced his decision this week to dissolve the national intelligence agency (Senain).... Read More

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has defied US sanctions slapped on the petro, the much-trumpeted cryptocurrency launched by his government to try and escape the country’s financial and economic crisis.... Read More

Prosecutors in Distrito Federal are investigating whether UK-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) acted illegally in Brazil, amid increased scrutiny about the group’s international operations.... Read More

There is a new twist in the legal proceedings against Brazil's former president Lula da Silva (2003-2011), the strongest leftist presidential pre-candidate in this year’s general election.... Read More

Timo Soini became the first Finnish foreign minister to visit Uruguay last week.... Read More

ARGENTINA & BRAZIL | Aluminium and steel boost.... Read More

The future of the structural economic reforms implemented by the government led by President Enrique Peña Nieto is under debate.... Read More

The disappearance of a group of university students in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city and the capital of Jalisco state, has produced alarm.... Read More

President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has appointed his deputy, Óscar Ortiz, to assume command over the cabinet and the government’s economic and security policies in a bid to revive his fortunes in the remaining 18 months of his term in office after the ruling left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) suffered a major setback in congressional elections on 4 March.... Read More

President Jimmy Morales has announced that, as of 31 March, the military will no longer assist the national police (PNC) in citizen security efforts.... Read More

The latest opinion surveys ahead of the 1 April presidential second round run-off show the two contenders – Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz of the small conservative Partido Restauración Nacional (RN) and Carlos Alvarado Quesada of the ruling centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) – in a technical tie.... Read More

Within two weeks of returning to power in Chile, President Sebastián Piñera has confronted the country’s two most longstanding disputes: Bolivia’s historic territorial claim to a sovereign outlet to the Pacific in northern Chile; and the Mapuche indigenous territorial claim in southern Chile.... Read More

“It is time to draw a line under the politics of hatred and confrontation that have only harmed the country.”... Read More