Brazil & Southern Cone - January 2020

The end of 2019 was tumultuous and eventful for much of the Southern Cone, particularly in Chile following months of social uprising, and Argentina and Uruguay, which both saw presidential elections, with a new government having already taken over in the former.... Read More

Alberto Fernández was sworn in as Argentina’s new president on 10 December 2019, marking a return to the Left and to Peronism after four years of centre-right rule under Mauricio Macri.... Read More

Having inherited a major economic crisis in a notoriously volatile economy, the Argentine government of President Alberto Fernández which took over on 10 December 2019 is not doing too badly.... Read More

Once more the ‘Vaca Muerta’ shale oil and gas deposits in Patagonia are being touted as the solution to Argentina’s recurring economic troubles.... Read More

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has delivered a slightly mixed endorsement of the Uruguayan economy.... Read More

Uruguayan anti-narcotics authorities were delivered a belated Christmas present on 26 and 27 December 2019 in the form of two massive cocaine seizures, together totalling around six tonnes (t).... Read More

Chile is facing something of a retail industry melt-down as the upheaval caused by social and political protests enters its fourth month.... Read More

Jair Bolsonaro has completed his first year as president of Brazil claiming success on the public security front, an assertion based largely on falling crime rates.... Read More

As the known involvement in corruption of a number of high-profile public officials in Paraguay, former and current, has returned to the fore, pressure is growing on the administration of President Mario Abdo Benítez to crack down on the crime, with the US being particularly vocal on the matter.... Read More

PARAGUAY| Fiscal deficit larger than anticipated.... Read More