Weekly Report - 24 May 2018 (WR-18-20)

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro was re-elected on 20 May until 2025 which, if he serves out his term, would mean 26 straight years of Bolivarian governments.... Read More

“Mr [Nicolás] Maduro was re-elected in Venezuela today in an electoral process that is as fraudulent as that being carried out here in Colombia”.... Read More

The Peruvian government has begun taking the first significant steps to deliver on President Martín Vizcarra’s promises to tackle government corruption and public insecurity, as well as promoting the economic development of the country’s regions.... Read More

The release of a new study regarding the location of the Aquio-Incahuasi natural gas field – one of Bolivia’s largest active gas and condensate fields – has reignited tensions between Santa Cruz department (where the study concluded the gas field is exclusively found) and neighbouring Chuquisaca (which previously received a proportion of the royalties).... Read More

Jitters over October’s general election have left investors lukewarm on Brazil.... Read More

Sealing an accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could prove to be much easier for the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri than securing a deal with provincial governors representing the main opposition Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists) to cut the fiscal deficit.... Read More

Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes dismissed his agriculture and livestock minister, Marcos Medina, and customs director Nelson Valiente last week after a scandal over the entry of 180 tonnes (t) of beef into Paraguay from Brazil without appropriate sanitary certificates.... Read More

CHILE | GDP growth up.... Read More

Andrés Manuel López Obrador remains in pole position to win Mexico’s presidential elections on 1 July after the second of the country’s three scheduled presidential debates.... Read More

MEXICO | Hokchi concession.... Read More

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has released preliminary findings from its visit to Nicaragua – its first since 1992.... Read More

El Salvador’s former president Tony Saca (2004-2009) of the main right-wing opposition Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena) has become the latest former head of state (and second from Arena), to face legal action for money-laundering and corruption.... Read More

The UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson concluded on 23 May a five-day three-nation tour of the region, beginning in Peru and ending in Chile.... Read More

“Say what you like about me but it is an offence to the Venezuelan people to say that there is a dictatorship here.”... Read More