Weekly Report - 01 November 2018

Jair Bolsonaro has been elected the 38th president of Brazil, comfortably defeating the candidate of the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), Fernando Haddad, with 55.13% of the valid vote in the run-off on 28 October.... Read More

A judge sentenced opposition leader Keiko Fujimori on 31 October to three years of preventive detention, pending further investigation of bribe-taking from Odebrecht, the Brazilian civil engineering company.... Read More

A new attempt to initiate talks between the government led by President Nicolás Maduro and the political opposition is underway.... Read More

For the past two months, Colombia’s ruling right-wing Centro Democrático (CD), led by former president (2002-2010) and incumbent senator Álvaro Uribe, has been driving attempts to create a special chamber to deal with the crimes committed by members of the military within the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP), the transitional justice court set up following the signing of the peace deal with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) to handle cases related to the country’s internal armed conflict.... Read More

Chile’s privatised pension system is widely admired.... Read More

It has taken five years, but on 29 October a massive money-laundering trial, known as ‘la ruta del dinero K’ finally had its first day in court.... Read More

A bad mistake that could set Mexico back 10 years.... Read More

The government led by President Daniel Ortega accused the Nicaraguan Church this week of plotting a coup with far-right sectors at home and abroad.... Read More

One person was killed and 48 arrests were made during a 24-hour strike on 29 October in the Cibao region, comprising 14 provinces in the north of the Dominican Republic.... Read More

Panama’s presidential line-up ahead of next May’s elections is now complete.... Read More

The migrant caravans that have left Central America’s ‘Northern Triangle’ countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) in recent weeks continue their inexorable march north, towards the US, despite many choosing to turn back and efforts to stop those who do keep going from entering Mexico from Guatemala.... Read More

“I make you my witnesses that this government will be a defender of the constitution, democracy, and freedom.... Read More