Weekly Report - 23 May 2019 (WR-19-20)

Colombia’s President Iván Duque is engaging in high-stakes talks with the majority of the country’s political parties.... Read More

Venezuela’s de facto president Nicolás Maduro marked the anniversary of his re-election on 20 May by tabling a proposal to bring forward legislative elections, which are constitutionally due in December 2020.... Read More

Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra visited congress without warning on 21 May accompanied by his prime minister Salvador del Solar and justice minister Vicente Zeballos, who had been summoned to appear before the congressional constitutional commission to discuss the government’s political reform proposals.... Read More

PERU | Trade with Apec countries at record high.... Read More

“Fernández for the presidency, Fernández for power.” This, as expected, will be one of the slogans employed in the campaign ahead of October’s presidential elections.... Read More

The Frente Amplio (FA) government led by President Tabaré Vázquez has taken further steps to advance its plans for Finnish firm UPM to build a second major pulp mill in the country (UPM II).... Read More

As the Brazilian government continues to be embroiled in internal tensions, and to struggle in the face of an anaemic economy, lately its focus has somewhat drifted away from the public security debate.... Read More

Following on from a series of setbacks in congress [WR-19-19] and large-scale nationwide protests on 15 May, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government is weakened.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Offshore oil and gas explorations.... Read More

Germán Martínez Cázares has become the first high-ranking government official appointed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to quit the government.... Read More

MEXICO | Unemployment on the rise.... Read More

Guatemala’s constitutional court (CC) last week definitively barred two of the three main presidential candidates from competing in the general election on 16 June: Thelma Aldana, a former attorney general (2014-2018) who was running for the leftist opposition Movimiento Semilla, and Zury Ríos, the daughter of Guatemala’s late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983) of the ultra-right-wing opposition Valor.... Read More

“A golden opportunity which must be seized now”.... Read More

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the leader of the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC), Raúl Castro, met Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, in Havana on 21 May.... Read More

“That a small clique of veteran commanders now affirms that it was a mistake to honour our word only shows that they, individually, have parted ways with the decisions adopted collectively.... Read More