Weekly Report - 06 June 2019 (WR-19-22)

As the domestic political position of Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador goes from strength to strength he faces a major diplomatic challenge north of the border which will only intensify as his US peer Donald Trump gears up for a re-election bid.... Read More

In just one day and in one fell swoop Colombia’s supreme court (CSJ) and constitutional court (CC) delivered blows to the political authority of President Iván Duque and restored a significant amount of confidence in the ailing peace deal signed with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in 2016.... Read More

A major political confrontation between President Martín Vizcarra and the opposition-dominated congress has ended with victory for the former.... Read More

Venezuela’s de facto president, Nicolás Maduro, announced on 4 June that he was initiating a “permanent session” of the country’s defence and security council, a measure he claimed was necessary to unify his government’s “economic political and military control’, counter US coup-plotting, and prioritise a dialogue process with the political opposition conducted in the Norwegian capital Oslo.... Read More

Tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans were glued to their screens on 2 June, or gathered in squares, parks, and stadiums around the country in front of giant screens, to witness the victory of Richard Carapaz in the Giro d’Italia, one of the three grand tours in cycling.... Read More

“We either build this [reform] agenda together, or we’re heading for a collapse,” Rodrigo Maia, Democratas (Dem) deputy and president of Brazil’s federal chamber of deputies, told the national daily O Estado de São Paulo in an interview published on 3 June.... Read More

President Sebastián Piñera last week delivered his state-of-the-nation address.... Read More

Argentina’s ruling centre-right Cambiemos coalition has yet to win a provincial election in the current cycle.... Read More

BRAZIL | Government concludes another leniency agreement.... Read More

“We are thinking big, we are going to leave a legacy for the Salvadorean people that history will not erase,” President Nayib Bukele said during his investiture on 1 June.... Read More

President Juan Orlando Hernández has announced the definitive repeal of two decrees approved in late April which the platform for the defence of health and education (PDSE), grouping teachers and doctors’ unions, warned would result in the privatisation of both sectors as well as layoffs [WR-19-17].... Read More

Panama’s congressional economy & finance commission rejected a legislative initiative (766) on 29 May regarding a contract between the state and Minera Panamá, the local subsidiary of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd.... Read More

“Mexico cannot be a hostage to US President Donald Trump’s electoral aspirations, and we hope he is not going to use a stick to beat our country with during his campaign as it gets underway.... Read More