Weekly Report - 13 June 2019 (WR-19-23)

Not to be outdone by his predecessor Cristina Fernández (2007-2015), Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri sprung a major surprise of his own this week just as the deadline of 12 June for sealing electoral alliances was approaching.... Read More

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro paid a short state visit to Argentina on 6 June to meet his peer Mauricio Macri.... Read More

Sérgio Moro, a former federal judge who led the charge on the ‘Lava Jato’ (Car Wash) corruption investigation until he accepted President Jair Bolsonaro’s offer to become Brazil’s justice minister last November, is a divisive figure.... Read More

Chile’s treasury and public works ministries revealed an investment programme on 6 June worth US$1.4bn.... Read More

Uruguay’s primary elections on 30 June are shaping up as the most intriguing in the country’s history.... Read More

Such was the nefarious nature of the government run by César Álvarez Aguilar in Peru’s north-western region of Áncash (2007-2014) that the corruption for which he was convicted this week was a minor misdemeanour by comparison.... Read More

Consummating a sensitive political blow for the government led by President Iván Duque and his campaign to ensure that the 2016 peace deal signed with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) does not allow former guerrilla leaders to avoid just punishment, Seuxis Paucias Hernández Solarte (‘Jesús Santrich’) was formally sworn-in as a national deputy on 11 June.... Read More

“Good news for Mexico the tariffs that were going to be unjustly imposed will not be forthcoming….... Read More

President Nayib Bukele set off a firestorm this week by alleging on Twitter that two senior members of the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) were financing El Salvador’s mara gangs to attack the police and destabilise his government.... Read More

President Jovenel Moïse’s position is looking increasingly precarious in Haiti.... Read More

President-elect Laurentino ‘Nito’ Cortizo of the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) has unveiled his future cabinet ahead of taking office next month.... Read More

HONDURAS | Trade debt increases 19.7% The trade deficit stood at US$1.4bn in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 19.7% on the same period of 2018, the Honduran central bank (BCH) reported.... Read More

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales shrugged off a march by opposition groups this week demanding free and fair general elections in October and took aim at 21 former Latin American presidents who called on the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS) to condemn his re-election bid as “a serious violation” of the Inter-American convention on human rights.... Read More

“The government’s best asset is the president.... Read More