Weekly Report - 10 January 2019 (WR-19-01)

Jair Bolsonaro took over the presidency of Brazil on New Year’s Day, heralding the start of a new political era in the country.... Read More

“I will be sworn-in on 10 January come hell or high water.” This was the response issued by Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro to a declaration issued by the Lima Group of Western Hemisphere countries that it will no longer recognise him as the country’s legitimate president should he be sworn-in for another presidential term.... Read More

Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra has got the better of the main opposition Fuerza Popular (FP, Fujimoristas) in a series of skirmishes in recent months but he has now won a potentially decisive battle: the attorney general, Pedro Chávarry, in theory non-partisan but in practice locked in a potent partnership with FP, has resigned.... Read More

President Iván Duque promulgated a key tax reform on 28 December known as the ‘Ley de Financiamiento’.... Read More

In late December, President Sebastián Piñera was forced to name Mario Rozas Córdova as his new head of the Carabineros – the third new director of Chile’s militarised police in less than a year.... Read More

Politics normally takes a holiday this time of year in Uruguay but this was manifestly not the case in the first week of 2019.... Read More

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The outlook on the economic and judicial front heading into 2019 looks more encouraging for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador but security poses troubling questions.... Read More

The New Year has not got off to the best possible start for many Mexicans.... Read More

The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, decided at the end of last year to begin the process of applying Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) against Nicaragua.... Read More

At the start of this week Raúl Melara was sworn in as El Salvador’s new attorney general for a three-year term following his election by the 84-member legislature at the end of last year.... Read More

The Cuban Revolution turned 60 on 1 January.... Read More

“I stand before the whole nation on this day, the day on which the [Brazilian] nation began to free itself from socialism, from inverted values, from a bloated state and from political correctness.”... Read More